SearXNG is a meta‑search engine that lets you keep your searches private while avoiding ads alongside your internet queries.
Another benefit of SearXNG is its somewhat more “compact” layout compared to Google – actual results look a lot like a Google search from 15 years ago, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
A search for “recipe for pancakes” on Google in Microsoft Edge without an AdBlocker:
A corresponding search for “recipe for pancakes” on SearXNG in Microsoft Edge without an AdBlocker:
Step 1 is to find a publicly available SearXNG instance that you can use for searches. It’s not like Google or Bing, where there’s only one site to search on; these engines are typically run by enthusiasts, web‑hosting firms, or the like.
You can find a reasonably up‑to‑date list here:
https://searx.space
In this tutorial I’m using a version provided by OVH, a large French web‑hosting company—this should offer a degree of stability for reliable operation:
The search engine can be used as‑is, simply by bookmarking it in your browser, but the smartest way is to make it work like the address‑bar search in Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or other engines that can be turned on/off by default in many browsers.
I use the Vivaldi browser, which is partly built in Norway (outside U.S. influence, even though it uses the Chromium engine, a Google‑controlled open‑source project) and has strong built‑in tracking protection alongside an integrated ad‑blocker.
See the end of this post for a quick guide for Microsoft Edge, the default browser in Windows 11.
In Vivaldi, choose Tools → Settings → Search, then scroll down to the search‑engine editor and press + under the list of engines.
In the Name field, give your engine a name—here I’ll call it “SearXNG – OVH.”
The Nickname field is a shortcut you can use directly in the browser’s address bar to call a specific engine – here “xng” is a good choice.
In the URL field you must keep the syntax exactly right. Vivaldi suggests this line by default:
https://example.com/search?q=%s
And it’s important that we ONLY replace “example.com” with “opnxng.com,” and do NOT delete the rest of the line.
Finally, tick Set as default search and Set as private search.
That’s it – now you can type a query into Vivaldi’s address bar and see the results exactly as if you’d navigated to the search page and performed the query there.
I chose OVH’s server because it’s a fairly large hosting company, but, frankly, it’s not the world’s fastest engine. If you search for “recipe for pancakes” and then click Images just under the search field on the results page, it takes a moment before matching images appear.
Feel free to experiment—perhaps you’ll find another address on the list that’s faster, or it might not matter to you.
In Microsoft Edge you can add your own search engine by clicking the three dots in the upper‑right corner and selecting Settings → Privacy, search, and services → Search and related services → Address bar and search → Search engines → Add search engine.
The URL must be the same we set up in Vivaldi:
https://example.com/search?q=%s
Replace “example.com” with “opnxng.com” for this instance.