Type of site | Metasearch engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Russian, Romanian |
| Owner | NovaTek |
| Website | https://shuriken.pm |
| Registration | Optional |
| Users | 40+ |
| Launched |
|
| Current status | Inactive (mid-2024) |
| Written in | PHP |
Shuriken is a metasearch engine owned by a small team of anonymous individuals. The search engine includes basic searching options, such as websites and images, but it also includes OSINT abilities, as well as Tor site search and torrents. Instead of using Google's propietary API, Shuriken relies on their custom made scraper in order to get results from Google and other resource sites.
Origins
Shuriken made its first appearance as a forum in May 2023 and gained few members, until the owner of Shuriken, decided to make a search engine in early August 2023. It was available to public as version v0.5.1[1], with web searching, images, videos and torrents and Tor. The site gained some low popularity at the time, and its owner released some few versions that include bugfixes and some customization. Shuriken also claims that they never log any search queries[2] and does not use any first-party or third-party trackers for their ads[2].
Release of v1
The owner has released the v1.0 version of the meta search engine on 1st of December 2023 and has claimed the release date to be the date of when the service had released. The new version has included an OSINT feature (that needed an account registration in order to use it) and what it did was to search up accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and document search by using Google dorks.
v2 Leaks
On the Telegram channel of the metasearch engine, screenshots of the v2 OSINT[3] feature and the engine rewrite[4] were posted. The v2 was in active development since February 2024 and beta development was released to public with a specific premium subscription.
A new logo for the metasearch engine website was also posted on their Telegram channel, featuring a dot-style font.[5]
Defunct status
It has ceased function in mid-2024 with an announcement on Telegram from the owner stating that interest was lost, but there may be plans for revival in the future.
References
- ↑ "Release Beta 0.5.1".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "No logs and trackers claims".
- ↑ "OSINT v2 unfinished feature".
- ↑ Web/Image engine rewrite, https://t.me/shurikenxng/281 and https://t.me/shurikenxng/285
- ↑ "v2 Logo".
