Web search#

The Web tab is Searpa’s core. It can draw on three independent web indexes and blend whatever you enable into one ranked list.

The three engines#

You choose which engines to use in Settings → Engines. Enable just one for a single source, or several to blend them. All three are on by default.

How results are blended#

When more than one engine returns results, Searpa merges them with Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) rather than just concatenating the lists:

• Each result URL scores points based on how high it ranks in each engine that returned it.
• The same URL from several engines collapses into one entry, and its scores add up, so a page multiple engines agree on rises toward the top.
• Each merged result shows which engines contributed it, so you can see when there is cross-engine agreement.

The effect: broad, mainstream results that everyone surfaces rank highly, while the distinctive finds from a single index (especially Marginalia’s small-web results) still appear.

Refining a search#

• Time range — filter to the last day, week, month or year.
• Safe search — on by default; turn it off in Settings to include adult results.
• Spelling corrections — when a query looks misspelled, Searpa surfaces a suggested correction above the results.
• Pagination — page through more results at the bottom of the list.
• Languages — set a preferred search language in Settings, or leave it on Auto to follow your browser.

Blocking sites#

You can hide results from domains you never want to see. Add them under Settings → Engines (blocked sites); matching results are filtered out of every web search. This list is stored against your account.

Bangs#

Type a !bang anywhere in your query to redirect it, for example !w einstein goes straight to Wikipedia, and !images sunset jumps to the Images tab. See Bangs for the full story.