Orion Search Engine
Explore web pages with less bloat

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🚀 What is this?
A retro-futuristic web crawler and search engine that feels like exploring a star map. Built with Python, SQLite, and Flask, featuring:

• Web spider that crawls 10,000 pages (modify max_pages in web_spider.py)
• Cosmic-themed UI with animated constellations and cyberpunk aesthetics
• PageRank algorithm powering search results
• Self-contained database (no cloud services required)

Perfect for researchers, hobbyists, or anyone who wants to understand web crawling fundamentals without corporate tracking. Add your own websites to the seed_urls to expand and decrease search.

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🌌 Installation
You’ll need:

• Python 3.10+
• Basic terminal skills (i.e python source.py / python3 source.py)

1. Clone this repo:
   

   git clone https://github.com/Euclidae/Orion-Search-Engine.git
   cd Orion-Search-Engine

2. Install requirements:
   

   #requests should come in preinstalled but I have been told it sometimes doesn't.
   pip install requests beautifulsoup4 flask networkx

3. Start crawling (pick 1-2 seed URLs initially):

   #run this first before you run web_search
   python web_spider.py

4. Calculate PageRank (run after crawling):

   python pagerank.py

5. Launch the search portal:

   # P.S I am apolitical so do not make assumptions based on my choice BBC. It was among the first to come to mind.
   python web_search.py

Visit http://localhost:5000 on your web browser to begin exploring.

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🔭 Key Components

1. web_spider.py

   • Starts from seed URLs (BBC, CNN, CS50 Manual by default)
   • Stores raw HTML and cleaned text in crawled_pages.db
   • Avoids duplicate visits using URL frontier

2. web_search.py

   • Flask server with cyberpunk-themed templates
   • Searches cleaned content using SQL LIKE queries
   • Ranks results using pre-computed PageRank

3. pagerank.py

   • Builds link graph using NetworkX
   • Updates PageRank scores in database

4. static/

   • Dark forest background image (Forest-Dark.png)
   • CSS animations for constellation effects
   • Retro terminal-style fonts

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🌠 Customization
web_spider.py

• Add seed URLs: Edit seed_urls in web_spider.py
• Change visual theme: Modify style.css (try neon colors!)
• Improve ranking: Adjust the PageRank damping factor in pagerank.py
• Add stopwords: Cleaner content = better search results

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🌍 Ethics & License

• Use freely: MIT License - modify, share, or build commercial projects
• Respect robots.txt: Add parsing logic if crawling public sites
• Storage warning: 10k pages ≈ 500MB local storage

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📡 Troubleshooting

❗ "Table pages has no column"
Delete crawled_pages.db and re-run the spider - schema updates require fresh DB.

❗ Slow crawling
Lower max_pages or add timeouts between requests.

❗ Missing constellation effects
Ensure Chrome/Firefox and hardware acceleration enabled.

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🌌 Why "Orion"?
Named after the grand archer, Super Orion. I'd name it Gilgamesh, but that just sounds stupid, not gonna lie https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Orion https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Gilgamesh

🌕 Final Note
This isn’t Google - it’s a learning tool that prioritizes transparency over speed. Expect quirks, enjoy the retro vibe, and maybe add your own constellation patterns to the CSS.

May your searches always find starlight.

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Euclidae | 2024 | GitHub
Built with Python, insomnia, and a fascination with space-age retro

P.S. I borrowed the background from Jakoolit's Hyprland wallpapers. Bye.