Whoogle search

What is Whoogle Search ?

Get Google search results, but without any ads, JavaScript, AMP links, cookies, or IP address tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file. Quick and simple to implement as a primary search engine replacement on both desktop and mobile.

Screenshots

Desktop

Mobile

Whoogle Search Features

• No ads or sponsored content
• No JavaScript
• No cookies
• No tracking/linking of your personal IP address
• No AMP links
• No URL tracking tags (i.e. utm=%s)
• No referrer header
• Tor and HTTP/SOCKS proxy support
• Autocomplete/search suggestions
• POST request search and suggestion queries (when possible)
• View images at full res without site redirect (currently mobile only)
• Light/Dark/System theme modes (with support for custom CSS theming)
• Randomly generated User Agent
• Easy to install/deploy
• DDG-style bang (i.e. !<tag> <query>) searches
• Optional location-based searching (i.e. results near <city>)
• Optional NoJS mode to view search results in a separate window with JavaScript blocked

Install Whoogle Search

There are a few different ways to begin using the app, depending on your preferences:

Heroku Quick Deploy

Provides:

• Easy Deployment of App
• A HTTPS url (https://<your app name>.herokuapp.com)

Notes:

• Requires a PAID Heroku Account.
• Sometimes has issues with auto-redirecting to https. Make sure to navigate to the https version of your app before adding as a default search engine.

Repl.it

Note: Requires a (free) Replit account

Provides:

• Free deployment of app
• Free HTTPS url (https://<app name>.<username>.repl.co)
  • Supports custom domains
• Downtime after periods of inactivity (solution)

Fly.io

You will need a Fly.io account to deploy Whoogle. The free allowances are enough for personal use.

Install the CLI: https://fly.io/docs/hands-on/installing/

Deploy the app

flyctl auth login
flyctl launch --image benbusby/whoogle-search:latest

The first deploy won’t succeed because the default internal_port is wrong. To fix this, open the generated fly.toml file, set services.internal_port to 5000 and run flyctl launch again.

Your app is now available at https://<app-name>.fly.dev.

Koyeb

Use one of the following guides to install Whoogle on Koyeb:

1. Using GitHub: https://www.koyeb.com/docs/quickstart/deploy-with-git
2. Using Docker: https://www.koyeb.com/docs/quickstart/deploy-a-docker-application

pipx

Persistent install:

pipx install git+https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git

Sandboxed temporary instance:

pipx run --spec git+https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git whoogle-search

pip

pip install whoogle-search

$ whoogle-search --help
usage: whoogle-search [-h] [--port <port number>] [--host <ip address>] [--debug] [--https-only] [--userpass <username:password>]
                      [--proxyauth <username:password>] [--proxytype <socks4|socks5|http>] [--proxyloc <location:port>]

Whoogle Search console runner

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit
  --port <port number>  Specifies a port to run on (default 5000)
  --host <ip address>   Specifies the host address to use (default 127.0.0.1)
  --debug               Activates debug mode for the server (default False)
  --https-only          Enforces HTTPS redirects for all requests
  --userpass <username:password>
                        Sets a username/password basic auth combo (default None)
  --proxyauth <username:password>
                        Sets a username/password for a HTTP/SOCKS proxy (default None)
  --proxytype <socks4|socks5|http>
                        Sets a proxy type for all connections (default None)
  --proxyloc <location:port>
                        Sets a proxy location for all connections (default None)

See the available environment variables for additional configuration.

Manual

Note: Content-Security-Policy headers can be sent by Whoogle if you set WHOOGLE_CSP.

Dependencies

• Python3
• libcurl4-openssl-dev and libssl-dev
  • macOS: brew install openssl curl-openssl
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev
  • Arch: pacman -S curl openssl

Install

Clone the repo and run the following commands to start the app in a local-only environment:

git clone https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git
cd whoogle-search
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
./run

See the available environment variables for additional configuration.

systemd Configuration

After building the virtual environment, you can add something like the following to /lib/systemd/system/whoogle.service to set up a Whoogle Search systemd service:

[Unit]
Description=Whoogle

[Service]
# Basic auth configuration, uncomment to enable
#Environment=WHOOGLE_USER=<username>
#Environment=WHOOGLE_PASS=<password>
# Proxy configuration, uncomment to enable
#Environment=WHOOGLE_PROXY_USER=<proxy username>
#Environment=WHOOGLE_PROXY_PASS=<proxy password>
#Environment=WHOOGLE_PROXY_TYPE=<proxy type (http|https|proxy4|proxy5)
#Environment=WHOOGLE_PROXY_LOC=<proxy host/ip>
# Site alternative configurations, uncomment to enable
# Note: If not set, the feature will still be available
# with default values.
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_TW=farside.link/nitter
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_YT=farside.link/invidious
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_RD=farside.link/libreddit
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_MD=farside.link/scribe
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_TL=farside.link/lingva
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_IMG=farside.link/rimgo
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_WIKI=farside.link/wikiless
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_IMDB=farside.link/libremdb
#Environment=WHOOGLE_ALT_QUORA=farside.link/quetre
# Load values from dotenv only
#Environment=WHOOGLE_DOTENV=1
Type=simple
User=<username>
# If installed as a package, add:
ExecStart=<python_install_dir>/python3 <whoogle_install_dir>/whoogle-search --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5000
# For example:
# ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/my_username/.local/bin/whoogle-search --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5000
# Otherwise if running the app from source, add:
ExecStart=<whoogle_repo_dir>/run
# For example:
# ExecStart=/var/www/whoogle-search/run
WorkingDirectory=<whoogle_repo_dir>
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
SyslogIdentifier=whoogle

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then,

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable whoogle
sudo systemctl start whoogle

Tor Configuration optional

If routing your request through Tor you will need to make the following adjustments. Due to the nature of interacting with Google through Tor we will need to be able to send signals to Tor and therefore authenticate with it.

There are two authentication methods, password and cookie. You will need to make changes to your torrc:

• Cookie

  1. Uncomment or add the following lines in your torrc:

     • ControlPort 9051
     • CookieAuthentication 1
     • DataDirectoryGroupReadable 1
     • CookieAuthFileGroupReadable 1

  2. Make the tor auth cookie readable:

     • This is assuming that you are using a dedicated user to run whoogle. If you are using a different user replace whoogle with that user.

     1. chmod tor:whoogle /var/lib/tor
     2. chmod tor:whoogle /var/lib/tor/control_auth_cookie

  3. Restart the tor service:

     • systemctl restart tor

  4. Set the Tor environment variable to 1, WHOOGLE_CONFIG_TOR. Refer to the Environment Variables section for more details.

     • This may be added in the systemd unit file or env file WHOOGLE_CONFIG_TOR=1

• Password

  1. Run this command:

     • tor --hash-password {Your Password Here}; put your password in place of {Your Password Here}.
     • Keep the output of this command, you will be placing it in your torrc.
     • Keep the password input of this command, you will be using it later.

  2. Uncomment or add the following lines in your torrc:

     • ControlPort 9051
     • HashedControlPassword {Place output here}; put the output of the previous command in place of {Place output here}.

  3. Now take the password from the first step and place it in the control.conf file within the whoogle working directory, ie. misc/tor/control.conf

     • If you want to place your password file in a different location set this location with the WHOOGLE_TOR_CONF environment variable. Refer to the Environment Variables section for more details.

  4. Heavily restrict access to control.conf to only be readable by the user running whoogle:

     • chmod 400 control.conf

  5. Finally set the Tor environment variable and use password variable to 1, WHOOGLE_CONFIG_TOR and WHOOGLE_TOR_USE_PASS. Refer to the Environment Variables section for more details.

     • These may be added to the systemd unit file or env file:
       • WHOOGLE_CONFIG_TOR=1
       • WHOOGLE_TOR_USE_PASS=1

Manual (Docker)

1. Ensure the Docker daemon is running, and is accessible by your user account

• To add user permissions, you can execute sudo usermod -aG docker yourusername
• Running docker ps should return something besides an error. If you encounter an error saying the daemon isn’t running, try sudo systemctl start docker (Linux) or ensure the docker tool is running (Windows/macOS).

2. Clone and deploy the docker app using a method below:

Docker CLI

Through Docker Hub:

docker pull benbusby/whoogle-search
docker run --publish 5000:5000 --detach --name whoogle-search benbusby/whoogle-search:latest

or with docker-compose:

git clone https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git
cd whoogle-search
docker-compose up

or by building yourself:

git clone https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git
cd whoogle-search
docker build --tag whoogle-search:1.0 .
docker run --publish 5000:5000 --detach --name whoogle-search whoogle-search:1.0

Optionally, you can also enable some of the following environment variables to further customize your instance:

docker run --publish 5000:5000 --detach --name whoogle-search \
  -e WHOOGLE_USER=username \
  -e WHOOGLE_PASS=password \
  -e WHOOGLE_PROXY_USER=username \
  -e WHOOGLE_PROXY_PASS=password \
  -e WHOOGLE_PROXY_TYPE=socks5 \
  -e WHOOGLE_PROXY_LOC=ip \
  whoogle-search:1.0

And kill with: docker rm --force whoogle-search

Using Heroku CLI

heroku login
heroku container:login
git clone https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search.git
cd whoogle-search
heroku create
heroku container:push web
heroku container:release web
heroku open

This series of commands can take a while, but once you run it once, you shouldn’t have to run it again. The final command, heroku open will launch a tab in your web browser, where you can test out Whoogle and even set it as your primary search engine. You may also edit environment variables from your app’s Settings tab in the Heroku Dashboard.

Arch Linux & Arch-based Distributions

There is an AUR package available, as well as a pre-built and daily updated package available at Chaotic-AUR.

Helm chart for Kubernetes

To use the Kubernetes Helm Chart:

1. Ensure you have Helm >=3.0.0 installed
2. Clone this repository
3. Update charts/whoogle/values.yaml as desired
4. Run helm install whoogle ./charts/whoogle

Using your own server, or alternative container deployment

There are other methods for deploying docker containers that are well outlined in this article, but there are too many to describe set up for each here. Generally it should be about the same amount of effort as the Heroku deployment.

Depending on your preferences, you can also deploy the app yourself on your own infrastructure. This route would require a few extra steps:

• A server (I personally recommend Digital Ocean or Linode, their cheapest tiers will work fine)
• Your own URL (I suppose this is optional, but recommended)
• SSL certificates (free through Let’s Encrypt)
• A bit more experience or willingness to work through issues

Environment Variables

There are a few optional environment variables available for customizing a Whoogle instance. These can be set manually, or copied into whoogle.env and enabled for your preferred deployment method:

• Local runs: Set WHOOGLE_DOTENV=1 before running
• With docker-compose: Uncomment the env_file option
• With docker build/run: Add --env-file ./whoogle.env to your command

Config Environment Variables

These environment variables allow setting default config values, but can be overwritten manually by using the home page config menu. These allow a shortcut for destroying/rebuilding an instance to the same config state every time.

Usage

Same as most search engines, with the exception of filtering by time range.

To filter by a range of time, append “:past ” to the end of your search, where can be hour, day, month, or year. Example: coronavirus updates :past hour

Extra Steps

Set Whoogle as your primary search engine

Note: If you’re using a reverse proxy to run Whoogle Search, make sure the “Root URL” config option on the home page is set to your URL before going through these steps.

Browser settings:

• Firefox (Desktop)
  • Version 89+
    • Navigate to your app’s url, right click the address bar, and select “Add Search Engine”.
  • Previous versions
    • Navigate to your app’s url, and click the 3 dot menu in the address bar. At the bottom, there should be an option to “Add Search Engine”.
  • Once you’ve added the new search engine, open your Firefox Preferences menu, click “Search” in the left menu, and use the available dropdown to select “Whoogle” from the list.
  • Note: If your Whoogle instance uses Firefox Containers, you’ll need to go through the steps here to get it working properly.
• Firefox (iOS)
  • In the mobile app Settings page, tap “Search” within the “General” section. There should be an option titled “Add Search Engine” to select. It should prompt you to enter a title and search query url - use the following elements to fill out the form:
    • Title: “Whoogle”
    • URL: http[s]://\<your whoogle url\>/search?q=%s
• Firefox (Android)
  • Version <79.0.0
    • Navigate to your app’s url
    • Long-press on the search text field
    • Click the “Add Search Engine” menu item
      • Select a name and click ok
    • Click the 3 dot menu in the top right
    • Navigate to the settings menu and select the “Search” sub-menu
    • Select Whoogle and press “Set as default”
  • Version >=79.0.0
    • Click the 3 dot menu in the top right
    • Navigate to the settings menu and select the “Search” sub-menu
    • Click “Add search engine”
    • Select the ‘Other’ radio button
      • Name: “Whoogle”
      • Search string to use: https://\<your whoogle url\>/search?q=%s
• Alfred (Mac OS X)

  1. Go to Alfred Preferences > Features > Web Search and click Add Custom Search. Then configure these settings

     • Search URL: `https://<your whoogle url>/search?q={query}
     • Title: Whoogle for '{query}' (or whatever you want)
     • Keyword: whoogle

  2. Go to Default Results and click the Setup fallback results button. Click + and add Whoogle, then drag it to the top.

• Chrome/Chromium-based Browsers
  • Automatic
    • Visit the home page of your Whoogle Search instance — this will automatically add the search engine if the requirements are met (GET request, no OnSubmit script, no path). If not, you can add it manually.
  • Manual
    • Under search engines > manage search engines > add, manually enter your Whoogle instance details with a <whoogle url>/search?q=%s formatted search URL.

Custom Redirecting

You can set custom site redirects using the WHOOGLE_REDIRECTS environment variable. A lot of sites, such as Twitter, Reddit, etc, have built-in redirects to Farside links, but you may want to define your own.

To do this, you can use the following syntax:

WHOOGLE_REDIRECTS="<parent_domain>:<new_domain>"

For example, if you want to redirect from “badsite.com” to “goodsite.com”:

WHOOGLE_REDIRECTS="badsite.com:goodsite.com"

This can be used for multiple sites as well, with comma separation:

WHOOGLE_REDIRECTS="badA.com:goodA.com,badB.com:goodB.com"

NOTE: Do not include “http(s)://” when defining your redirect.

Prevent Downtime (Heroku only)

Part of the deal with Heroku’s free tier is that you’re allocated 550 hours/month (meaning it can’t stay active 24/7), and the app is temporarily shut down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Once it becomes inactive, any Whoogle searches will still work, but it’ll take an extra 10-15 seconds for the app to come back online before displaying the result, which can be frustrating if you’re in a hurry.

A good solution for this is to set up a simple cronjob on any device at your home that is consistently powered on and connected to the internet (in my case, a PiHole worked perfectly). All the device needs to do is fetch app content on a consistent basis to keep the app alive in whatever ~17 hour window you want it on (17 hrs * 31 days = 527, meaning you’d still have 23 leftover hours each month if you searched outside of your target window).

For instance, adding */20 7-23 * * * curl https://<your heroku app name>.herokuapp.com > /home/<username>/whoogle-refresh will fetch the home page of the app every 20 minutes between 7am and midnight, allowing for downtime from midnight to 7am. And again, this wouldn’t be a hard limit - you’d still have plenty of remaining hours of uptime each month in case you were searching after this window has closed.

Since the instance is destroyed and rebuilt after inactivity, config settings will be reset once the app enters downtime. If you have configuration settings active that you’d like to keep between periods of downtime (like dark mode for example), you could instead add */20 7-23 * * * curl -d "dark=1" -X POST https://<your heroku app name>.herokuapp.com/config > /home/<username>/whoogle-refresh to keep these settings more or less permanent, and still keep the app from entering downtime when you’re using it.

HTTPS Enforcement

Only needed if your setup requires Flask to redirect to HTTPS on its own — generally this is something that doesn’t need to be handled by Whoogle Search.

Note: You should have your own domain name and an https certificate in order for this to work properly.

• Heroku: Ensure that the Root URL configuration on the home page begins with https:// and not http://
• Docker build: Add --build-arg use_https=1 to your run command
• Docker image: Set the environment variable HTTPS_ONLY=1
• Pip/Pipx: Add the --https-only flag to the end of the whoogle-search command
• Default run script: Modify the script locally to include the --https-only flag at the end of the python run command

Using with Firefox Containers

Unfortunately, Firefox Containers do not currently pass through POST requests (the default) to the engine, and Firefox caches the opensearch template on initial page load. To get around this, you can take the following steps to get it working as expected:

1. Remove any existing Whoogle search engines from Firefox settings
2. Enable GET Requests Only in Whoogle config
3. Clear Firefox cache
4. Restart Firefox
5. Navigate to Whoogle instance and re-add the engine

Reverse Proxying

Nginx

Here is a sample Nginx config for Whoogle:

server {
  server_name your_domain_name.com;
  access_log /dev/null;
  error_log /dev/null;

  location / {
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
      proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
  }
}

You can then add SSL support using LetsEncrypt by following a guide such as this one.