SelfSearch - P2P search engine version history - 14 versions
SelfSearch - P2P search engine by Hommelwater
SelfSearch - P2P search engine version history - 14 versions
Be careful with old versions! These versions are displayed for testing and reference purposes.You should always use the latest version of an add-on.
Latest version
Version 1.3.2
Released Sep 14, 2026 - 118.03 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and laterAuto-indexing- Pages are indexed automatically as you visit them - no need to click the icon for every page. A content script captures each page's text and the background indexes it fully. A toggle on the search page turns this off ("Auto-index visited pages").
- Single-page apps too. URL changes that bypass the History API (e.g. Discord-style routing) are caught via a polling fallback plus a tab-visibility check, so navigating within apps like Gmail, GitHub or YouTube now indexes the new views as well.
- Pages with no real content (JS shells, loading screens) are skipped.
Smarter search- The index is rebuilt automatically once after upgrading so existing pages use the new matching.
- Stemming (Porter) at index and query time: "running", "runs" and "run" all match the same pages.
- Prefix matching as a fallback: typing "sourdou" still finds the "sourdough" page.
- A query-key map understands synonyms and question-style phrasing ("fixing" also tries "repair", "meaning" tries "define"). Clicking a search result teaches the extension which keywords that query was useful for, so future similar queries expand with them (stored privately, locally).
- Results pagination: choose results per page and page through with Prev/Next.
Better keywords- Domain- and user-aware extraction deprioritize terms that appear on nearly every page, so each page's unique terms rank first.
- Keywords are stable across visits; only terms that reappear are kept, and user-entered keywords always stay at the front.
Reliability- The content script is hardened against extension context invalidation, and the mesh test suite is now reliable with fakes injected through explicit test seams.
Development- Tests: node test/run.mjs (65 tests). No npm, no build step.
Source code released under FUTO License
Older versions
Version 1.2.2
Released Aug 14, 2026 - 104.25 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and later- removed dead code
- added privacy notifications for adding peers
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.2.1
Released Aug 14, 2026 - 104.24 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and laterSource code released under FUTO License
Version 1.2.0
Released Aug 14, 2026 - 104.83 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and laterSelfSearch 1.2.0 - Release Notes
SelfSearch has been rewritten. It is now a serverless peer-to-peer extension: the server is gone and the entire search engine runs inside the browser, with no backend, no accounts, and no cloud.
What changed- Fully local engine. Click the icon to index a page; titles, keywords, and descriptions are extracted locally from the page's own text. No cloud, no API keys, no host permissions.
- No server to install. Load the extension, index pages, search. No setup script, no domain, no login.
Search across a trusted network (opt-in)- Nostr identity. Your keypair is your address (npub); the secret key stays in your extension storage.
- Friends and invites. Add friends by npub, or send a friend invite that both sides accept automatically.
- WebRTC mesh. Peers connect directly over WebRTC; relays are used only for connection signaling and friend invitations.
- Bloom-filter routing. Queries fan out over a hop-limited web of trust (default 2 hops), so you can find content in your friends' networks.
- Streaming results. Answers appear as they arrive, attributed to the author, not whoever relayed them.
Trust and integrity- Signed docs. Every doc served to peers carries a per-doc author signature. Caches verify before storing; unsigned or tampered docs are dropped, and forged answers are never shown.
- Signed tombstones. Deleting a page publishes a signed delete that propagates through the mesh, so cached copies of deleted pages disappear.
- Self-healing repair. A manifest of your docs detects loss or corruption and restores authentic copies from peers.
- Last-write-wins. Doc caches and profile sync never let an older copy roll back a newer one.
Redundancy- docCache. Peers' docs are cached on-demand from query answers and proactively backfilled from direct friends, so content survives a peer going offline and stays searchable.
- Peers feed. See who your peers are and what they have recently indexed.
Multi-device sync- Enter the same nsec on another device to make it the same identity; devices sharing a key link automatically and replicate your index (last-write-wins), so all your devices converge.
- Profile updates (name/avatar/bio) sync across your devices too.
Quality of life- Omnibox search (ss <query>), Alt+Shift+S, or the search page hub with Search / Peers / Profile tabs.
- Privacy and bandwidth. Share text metadata only, the application no longer takes screenshots and does text keyword extraction instead. Relays only carry signaling and invites.
What didn't change- Text-only metadata;
- A clear privacy policy (see PRIVACY.txt).
Development- The project is dependency-free: pure ES modules with relative imports. Tests run with Node's built-in runner - node test/run.mjs (30 tests). No npm, no build step, nothing to install.
(see github for more info)
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.8
Released Apr 29, 2026 - 39.55 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and later- Bug fix: update tokens properly when visiting search pages.
- Bug fix: deleting a server now lets the user re-add it.
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.7
Released Apr 24, 2026 - 39.44 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and later- Fixed a permission issue.
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.6
Released Apr 23, 2026 - 39.43 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and later- Fixed a bug that stopped users from indexing pages!
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.5
Released Apr 23, 2026 - 39.37 KBWorks with firefox 109.0a1 and later- Removed host_permission requirement and tabs permission, added scripting permission
- Force HTTPS on the servers for improved privacy and security
- Popup to add a server now only shows up when the user opens the add-on on a SelfSearch server
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.4
Released Apr 23, 2026 - 39.39 KBWorks with firefox 109.0 and laterSource code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.3
Released Apr 22, 2026 - 38.12 KBWorks with firefox 109.0 and later- Added icon
- Changed text to remove old reference to Bombus (now swapped with SelfSearch)
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.2
Released Apr 21, 2026 - 13.79 KBWorks with firefox 109.0 and later- Updated plugin to match new server endpoint
- You can now optionally let the server store the screenshot
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.1
Released Apr 15, 2026 - 13.4 KBWorks with firefox 58.0 and later- Improved image handling, allowing for larger images and faster indexing.
Source code released under FUTO License
Version 1.1.0
Released Apr 15, 2026 - 13.33 KBWorks with firefox 58.0 and later- Improved UI:
- Added a popup when visiting search servers to add the server to the add-on's server list
- Improved add-on styling
- Standalone server, the project is now separated from Bombus and called SelfSearch (https://github.com/HommelWater/SelfSearch)
Source code released under FUTO License
- Improved UI:
Version 1.0.0
Released Apr 10, 2026 - 10.97 KBWorks with firefox 58.0 and laterSource code released under FUTO License