4get
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| Creator | lolcat |
|---|---|
| Source Code | git.lolcat.ca |
| Main Instance | 4get.ca |
| List of instances | 4get.ca/instances |
4get (/fəˈɡɛt/) is a free and open-source search engine proxy that doesn't suck. Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, it aims to provide anonymized access to mainstream search engines. To this effect, 4get effectively blocks third party cookies, unwanted JavaScript snippets and provides a clean interface to navigate the web.
Users of the software can use the official site hosted in Canada, use an instance hosted by a third party or self-host from their computer. Third party hosted instances are available all around the world, and are often available through the Tor network; the official site coincidentally provides a tor address to connect.
Inception[edit | edit source]
The website has been programmed in the PHP programming language by lolcat, a /g/ tranny that grew unsatisfied of Searx and it's derivatives. The website has been available since the 1st of July 2023, on Canada day, initially only supporting Brave and DuckDuckGo.
Site features[edit | edit source]
4get provides access to over 18 search engines and growing. Unlike Searx and it's derivatives, 4get only allows you to use a single scraper at a time. This however grants more power over filtering the search results; 4get often supplies all of the available search filters of the target site. Moreover, the user can head over to the settings page to set a preferred search engine, modify basic content filtering rules and enable additional features.
A public API is available, although the official instance requires solving a CAPTCHA (referred as an IQ test on the site premises) first. The software supports web (general), image, video, news and music search options.
Cyber Attacks[edit | edit source]
The project has been the victim of multiple Distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS). On the 18 of February 2024, an UDP flood attack had hit the server, rendering it unusable for a 3 day period. The project lead had to move hosting providers because Contabo services had failed to provide adequate protection.
To this day, the website remains under constant attacks from bots doing HTTP requests. You can view the request count in real time on the instances page.
