> Currently, the script looks like this
>
> #!/bin/sh
> 0x $1|yy084|yy030|yy073
>
> "0x" is another Almquist shell script that can search about 63 different servers that return search results, e.g., Google, DDG, and so on.^1
>
> yy___ are UNIX filters written in C.
>
> 0x uses some yy proggrams as well, e.g., yy025, along with sed and a TCP client, e.g., tcpclient, netcat, socat, bssl, openssl, etc.
>
> yy084 outputs SERPs as SQL.
>
> This makes it easy to create simplified "mixed" SERPs with results from different servers.
>
> Where possible 0x allows for "continuation search". Going past page 1 of SERPs is discouraged or even prevented in recent times, all focus is on "the top result",^2 and some www search engines actively try to block exhaustive research and discovery. By continuing searches over time, e.g., page 1 of results on day 1, page 2 on day 2, page 3 on day 5, etc., one can sometimes avoid being blocked when doing exhaustive searches.
>
> 1. This is an ongoing experiment. Sometimes a site will "break" if the site operator changes something but this does not happen too often. Majority have remained stable over time.
>
> 2. This coincidentally benefits an advertising services racket.
How can I get more details about these filters. Are there existing implementations somewhere online which I can test? Seems pretty interesting.
Details are just another computer user, not a "developer", writing their own utilties. Continually editing, updating to suit personal needs. No prerequisites except flex and C89 compiler. Generally, static binaries under 50k.
A search on one of the search engines that indexes HN may provide some pointers. Something like site:ycombinator.com plus [name of filter].
Not sure about "interesting" but these are portable across OS, low resource requirements. Faster than sed. Boring stuff that works for me year after year.
How can I get more details about these filters. Are there existing implementations somewhere online which I can test? Seems pretty interesting.