/side-by-side-search

A browser extension and front-end that lets you compare two search engines simultanously

Primary LanguageHTML

Side-by-side search

What is this?

Compare two search engines side-by-side. You can even add it to your browser and you'll get autocompletion!

Usage

Start here.

FAQ

🤷‍♂️ Why did you make this?

I've always wanted to de-google my life, but had FOMO whenever I switched to another search engine. With DuckDuckGo, I would end up using !g at all times. A good way to start using a different search engine is to have Google's results side-by-side. It eases the transition, as one learns to trust the results.

👀 Are you tracking the search queries?

There is absolutely no tracking. Feel free to peruse through the code for both the extension and this site in this repository.

🕵️‍♂️ Why do I need an extension to make this work?

Search engines do not let you display their search results in frames. They set X-Frame-Options which tell your browser to not display the page. The extension strips the header to display the page in the frame.

🤖 How do I make this my default search engine on Chrome?

  • Go to chrome://settings/searchEngines (copy-paste it).
  • Find "Side-by-side Search", click on the three dots and select "Make default".

🔥 How do I make this my default search engine on Firefox?

  • Right click in the address bar and select "Add Side-by-side Search".
  • Go to about:preferences#search (copy-paste it) and under "Default Search Engine", select "Side-by-side Search".

✋ Are there any known limitations?

Some other extensions may interfere with Side-by-side Search. For instance, PrivacyBadger will block google.com if it's in a frame, as it thinks it's a tracker. You may need to whitelist google.com for this to work.

🐞 What if I found a bug or have a feature request?

Feel free to open an issue.

Develop

  • Clone the repository
  • Build the frontend
    • In the frontend/ directory, run npm i
    • then build the CSS with npm run build
  • Load the unpacked extension
    • For Chrome
      • Open the Extension Management page by navigating to chrome://extensions.
      • Enable Developer Mode by clicking the toggle switch next to Developer mode.
      • Click the Load unpacked button and select the extension directory.
    • Firefox
      • Open the about:debugging page, click "This Firefox"
      • click "Load Temporary Add-on"
      • then select any file in the extension/ directory.