Frequently Asked Questions

: Due to the fact it's too costly to properly avoid bots and other automated tools from abusing our service, you can only get a 2-hour free trial by solving a private proof-of-work captcha when trying to top up your account for the first time. Signup or login and top-up your account to start using Uruky.
: To create an account, you can visit this page. A new account number will be automatically generated and you'll be redirected to pay for at least one month, in order to start using Uruky.
: The current price is €5 / month (note this isn't a subscription; you can get a refund in the first 14 days, but there's nothing to cancel because it's a one-time payment; you can also pay for one month, don't pay for another, and pay again later — even create and use different account numbers; there's no stored email and as such you're not warned to renew, as well).
: When you're topping up your account, you can choose "Use a voucher" and type in the code you've received to get your account topped up for the voucher's number of days. Vouchers are deleted from the database the moment they're used, and are never linked to an account number or payment method.
: By default, Uruky is more focused on European-centric and smaller-tech-centric results. If you're used to Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo-style results, this default setup may not match your expectations right away.

In that case, we recommend setting Serper or Linkup as your first search providers. You can download this recommended preset settings file and import it in your settings page: recommended-google-like-settings.json. Alternatively, you can apply the recommended settings automatically.
: Source code will be made available to customers who have been paying for at least 12 months.

You will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with a non-compete clause (NCC) to access the source code. You will be able to self-host and use it for yourself and your family (personal use), but not distribute it or use it for commercial purposes, without our permission.
: All servers and data are physically in the EU. All search providers are based in the EU or UK. Payment processing is done in the EU.
: We don't store any personal or identifiable data in the database. Our user database only has an account number (like Mullvad), the timestamp of the account creation, and the ID + timestamp of the last payment (for the first 15 days, to allow refunds in the first 14 days). Mollie will keep more information (for legal reasons), but we won't have it connected to our database or your account after those 15 days.

User sessions (to prevent abuse and DDOS attacks) are stored in the database for up to 30 days and only include country of origin and device type (desktop, mobile), to aid you in identifying them. You can delete these sessions at any time. We use the IP2Location LITE database for IP geolocation .

Signup and failed login attempts are stored in the database for up to 30 days (to prevent abuse and DDOS attacks) and only include the (hashed) IP address of origin and the number of failed attempts.
: There are no plans to implement any AI features, for now. We find it hard to do in a sensible, responsible, and respectful way.
: No. We don't track or log search queries. You pay for the product, so you're not the product.
: Go into your settings and click "Add domain or TLD to boost or exclude" in the "Domain and TLD Boosting and Exclusions" section.

You can boost up, down, or exclude domains (like "instagram.com"), and TLDs (like ".lol", ".fun", ".buzz") from your search results.
: For web search, Uruky currently integrates Mojeek, Marginalia, EUSP (Ecosia/Qwant) (only works with French, German, or English), Linkup, Serper, and Uruky Site Search.

For image search, Uruky currently integrates Pixabay and Serper (image results).

We're constantly evaluating new search providers and considering them for Uruky. If you have any suggestions, please contact us.
: We calculate search rates based on the timestamps of the last searches of a user (just the timestamps, not the queries or anything else!). We currently limit searches to 5 per 5 seconds, 30 per minute, and 1800 per hour. We also protect against brute-force guessing of account numbers by banning IP addresses after 3 failed login attempts (we only log the hashed IP address when there is a failed login attempt).

If you're running into any of these issues and think it's unfair, please contact us.
: This means you've been temporarily banned. If you're not trying anything shady, this likely happened because you've created new accounts by mistake when trying to search with Uruky in Incognito sessions or without being authenticated. Sometimes this only happens if you use Firefox's search via context click. You can fix this by making sure you've properly setup your browser's search engine settings to use your Uruky Incognito URL.
: Most browsers allow you to set a default custom search engine.

Uruky's URL for it is https://uruky.com/search?q=%s.

For image search, use https://uruky.com/image-search?q=%s.

You can also find an Incognito URL in your settings, which you can use to search without having to log in to your account (in incognito mode, for example).

Help for Google Chrome.

Help for Firefox.

Help for Microsoft Edge.

Help for Safari (official workaround).

Help for Safari (alternative workaround).
: Image search is available at /image-search for topped up account numbers. Use the Web / Images links under the search box to switch modes with the same query. Provider order, filters, rate limits, JSON output via f=json, and configurable fallback engines work similarly to web search where applicable.

Thumbnails and full-size previews are loaded through our authenticated /image-proxy endpoint so your browser does not contact third-party image CDNs directly.

You can still open your configured image fallback engines (for example Google Images or Ecosia Images) from the result page if you want to compare elsewhere.
: You have to contact us in order to delete your account, with proof you ever paid for it (some payment amount and date will be enough, so we can cross-check it with our payments provider).

Remember we keep virtually no information about you, so you can't delete your account yourself because it would be too easy for someone who just obtained your account number to do so on your behalf, and we couldn't revert that.

Also, if you simply don't top-up your account, it will be automatically deleted 30 days after the expiration date comes around.

Finally, we keep no logs or tracking of your searches (only the timestamps of the last few searches of a user, to protect against abuse and DDOS attacks, no queries or anything else!). There is very little information to delete other than your account number and preferences.
: Your account number is only shown in the app (for example in your settings after you sign up). It does not appear on the Mollie payment checkout or receipt. We cannot help you recover your account number if you lost it.

If you lost your account number within 14 days of payment, you can reach out with proof of payment and we can find your account number.

If you need a new account number, you can create a new account.
: No. We don't have any social media accounts or presence. We also run no ads on non-privacy-friendly platforms.
: Yes, we support hashbangs. You can use them by prefixing/suffixing your search query with a bang (e.g. !g for Google, !w for Wikipedia, !d for DuckDuckGo, !e for Ecosia, !yt for YouTube).

You can optionally enable bangs from the Kagi bangs project: kagisearch/bangs.

You can also create up to 10 custom bangs in your settings. Custom bangs take precedence over built-in and Kagi bangs.
: You have to trust us, at least until we can show you the source code (after 12 months of paying for the service).

It is possible our search index providers track searches (they tell us they don't), but even if they do, they will not be able to link them to you or your account number.
: Yes, we support cash-by-mail payments for maximum anonymity. Go to the cash payment page for full instructions. In short: generate a payment token (shown once — write or print it), put your cash and the token in an envelope, and mail it to us in EUR, USD, or GBP (€5 / $7 / £5 per month, 1-12 months). Do not write your account number on the envelope. Cash must arrive within 30 days of your account expiring; accounts awaiting cash get 7 extra days. If you lose your token, you can generate a new one, which invalidates the previous one.
: Not at the moment. It's currently too difficult to reliably accept cryptocurrency payments in compliance with Portugal's regulations, while preserving customer privacy. If you have suggestions, please reach out.
: There are several search query parameters you can use to customize your search results:
q The search query. The only required parameter.

p The page number to fetch. Default is 1 (first).

l The language to filter the search results by (uppercase ISO 639-1 code).

c The country to filter the search results by (uppercase ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code).

s Whether to enable safe search results. 0 for no, 1 for yes. Default is 1/yes.

w Filter results by time on /search and /image-search: d for last day, w for last week, m for last month, y for last year, or a YYYY-MM-DD date. Use a for anytime (overrides your settings default); omit w to use that default.

f The format of the search results. html for the standard HTML page, json for JSON-formatted results.

sp Comma-separated list of providers for the page you call: on /search, web search providers (default: mojeek,eusp,linkup,marginalia,serper ); on /image-search, image search providers (default: pixabay,serper ).

il The interface language for Uruky (lowercase ISO 639-1 code).

it The interface theme for Uruky ( system, light, dark ).
: You can use the f=json search query parameter to get JSON-formatted search results, as per the FAQ entry above.

Note that you should also use your incognito token in the i search query parameter, to avoid having to send a cookie header in your request.
: Serper is UK-based. Still Europe, though not technically EU. And while it seems to use Google's results, it's still a more private option than using Google directly, and available for you to choose if you find the Mojeek and Marginalia results lacking. Note it is not the only option, nor even in the top 3 options for search providers, but some customers have requested it and found it to be a good option.
: Uruky publishes a SERPINFO definition for uBlacklist https://uruky.com/public/serpinfo.yml .

In uBlacklist, if you have subscription links enabled (they're off by default), open this subscription link to add Uruky's SERPINFO: https://ublacklist.github.io/serpinfo/subscribe?url=https%3A%2F%2Furuky.com%2Fpublic%2Fserpinfo.yml .
: Unofficially. Uruky is targeted at adults (18yo+), and as such, we expect each adult to pay for their own account number. If you reach out to us, we'll be willing to allow two account numbers to share their billing, by manually updating one's expiration date to the other's, and every time you top-up, you'll need to reach out. This way we don't have to create a connection between account numbers in the database.
: The name has no special meaning but we read it like "Euro-key" in English. Names are hard, and we're aware it can remind people of Uruk and Uruk-hai. That's OK.
: Our tech stack is intentionally very "boring" (as in, it generates and serves the HTML + bits of JS to enhance settings and such), using Deno in the backend (for higher package security and easier TypeScript), PostgreSQL for the DB, and Docker for easier deploying.
: When you search, we query the first search provider on your list, and if it yields less than X results (only Mojeek really gives us a total count, we have to try and estimate for the others), we try the second, and so on. We then merge the results in a round-robin fashion (first of first, first of second, second of first, second of second, and so on). There's a bit of more nuanced logic to also properly rank the results with the pin/exclude/raise/lower preferences, because it works differently across providers and not all of them support that, for example.
: Pexels was removed as an image search provider because they denied us permission to use their API with Uruky. If you're aware of other image search providers that could be added back to Uruky, please let us know.
: We have to generate invoices for every payment, but they're anonymous. If you need an invoice with your details/VAT, reach out within 14 days of the payment and we'll give you one.
: If you made a payment but logged out and didn't write down your account number, you can reach out within 14 days of the payment with proof of payment and we can find your account number.