YaCy

YaCy (pronounced "ya see") is a free distributed search engine, built on principles of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.[2][3] Its core is a computer program written in Java distributed on several hundred computers, as of September 2006, so-called YaCy-peers. Each YaCy-peer independently crawls through the Internet, analyzes and indexes found web pages, and stores indexing results in a common database (so called index) which is shared with other YaCy-peers using principles of P2P networks. It is a free search engine that everyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet and to help search the public internet clearly.

YaCy
Original author(s)Michael Christen
Developer(s)YaCy community
Stable release
1.922 / 14 October 2019 (2019-10-14)
Repositorygithub.com/yacy/yacy_search_server
Written inJava
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeOverlay network, Search engine
LicenseGPLv2+
Alexa rank 378,737 (As of 14 May 2019)[1]
Websiteyacy.net

Compared to semi-distributed search engines, the YaCy-network has a decentralised architecture. All YaCy-peers are equal and no central server exists. It can be run either in a crawling mode or as a local proxy server, indexing web pages visited by the person running YaCy on his or her computer. (Several mechanisms are provided to protect the user's privacy). Access to the search functions is made by a locally running web server which provides a search box to enter search terms, and returns search results in a similar format to other popular search engines.

YaCy was created in 2003 by Michael Christen[4].

System components

YaCy search engine is based on four elements:[5]

Crawler
A search robot that traverses from web page to web page and analyzes their content.
Indexer
Creates a reverse word index (RWI) i.e. each word from the RWI has its list of relevant URLs and ranking information. Words are saved in form of word hashes.
Search and administration interface
Made as a web interface provided by a local HTTP servlet with servlet engine.
Data storage
Used to store the reverse word index database utilizing a distributed hash table.
Homepage of YaCy

Search-engine technology
YaCy network
  • YaCy is a complete search appliance with user interface, index, administration and monitoring.
  • YaCy harvests web pages with a web crawler. Documents are then parsed, indexed and the search index is stored locally. If your peer is part a peer network, then your local search index is also merged into the shared index for that network.
  • A search is started then the local index contributes together with a global search index from peers in the YaCy search network.

YaCy platform architecture
Web search showing results of the different components YaCy uses

YaCy uses a combination of techniques for the networking, administration, and maintenance of indexing the search engine including blacklisting, moderation, and communication with the community. Here is how YaCy performs these operations:

  • Community components
    1. Web forum[6]
    2. Statistics
    3. XML API
  • Maintenance
    1. Web Server
    2. Indexing
    3. Crawler with Balancer
    4. Peer-to-Peer Server Communication
  • Content organization
    1. Blacklisting and Filtering
    2. Search interface
    3. Bookmarks
    4. Monitoring search results

Distribution

YaCy is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

The Debian package can be installed from a repository available at the subdomain of the project's website.[7] The package is not maintained in the official Debian package repository yet.[8][9]

gollark: Perhaps we are in the same time zone, or same country, or same constituency, or even same village, or same house, or same room.
gollark: It is 17:02:33 for me too!
gollark: Phrasing it as "the EVIL CAPITALISTS want us to unlockdown because they only care about the economy" is ridiculous - *we need to produce things* and people will probably become increasingly unhappy/crazy as time spent at home drags on.
gollark: Unfortunately the UK does not appear to *have* a plan, and the government is completely refusing to explain anything it's going to do.
gollark: Locking everything down just effectively puts the whole thing on pause, but at great cost, which makes sense as a way to buy time for launching another strategy.

See also
  • Dooble – an open-source web browser with an integrated YaCy Search Engine Tool Widget

References
  1. "yacy.net Site Info". Alexa Internet.
  2. "YaCy takes on Google with open source search engine". The Register. 2011-11-29. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
  3. "YaCy: It's About Freedom, Not Beating Google". PC World. 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
  4. "Ich entwickle eine P2P-basierende Suchmaschine. Wer macht mit?". Heise Online (in German). 2003-12-15. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
  5. "YaCy Technology Architecture". YaCy.net. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  6. "forum.yacy.de". Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  7. "En:DebianInstall". YaCyWiki. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  8. "Dev:TaskSharing". YaCyWiki. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  9. "#452422 - RFP: yacy -- distributed web crawler and search engine". Debian Bug report logs. Retrieved 2 May 2020.

Further reading

YaCy at LinuxReviews

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