About Firtl

Firtl is a search proxy. It lets you define which search engines you like to use and lets you switch between them when you search. Firtl stores no data about you - all your data is stored on your device. Your search behaviour is also not recorded. When you select a search engine to carry out a specific search, that engine may record your subsequent actvity.

How to use Firtl

Add some search engines! You can use the search config feature to define search engines. You will need at very least a search URL template, and an icon URL. Alternatively you can click on a link shared with you to automatically fill in the form. As an example click here to start adding Wikipedia.

Some more free/public search engines: Add wiktionary search. The search from Gov.UK. The handy-for-web-developer MDN - Mozilla Developer Network website search.

🕷 The Firtl spider

Firtl has its own spider†. A spider follows links on the World Wide Web. If you flag a search engine 'can spider', Firtl's spider may make a note of a link you follow. The spider uses content at such links to help with eg spelling. No note is made that *you* followed the link.

†As of April 2026 the spider is not yet implemented - there's only a list of URLs that may be crawled.