This post lists some best free search engines for developers. Here using these search engines, you can simply find all the dev related content based on the search query you type. With this, you can find programming resources, documentation of modules, and debugging tips from sites like StackOverflow. These search engines are primarily meant for developers and in the search results, they only show dev related content and nothing else. You just use these like you use any other search engine, like Google, and then just do whatever you want.
If you are a programmer and often turn to Google to find some resources then you can try out these search engines here. The problem with the conventional search engines is that they include insignificant results on the pages that may distract you. Or, you have to scroll a lot in order to finally find what you were looking for. To avoid this dilemma, you can just use dedicated search engines for developers that I have mentioned in this post. There is no registration and you can just type a search query and then you are all good to go.
Search Engines for Developers:
Quickref
Quickref is one of the best free search engines you can right now. Even though, it is now in the experimental stage but works perfectly. You can use it to find documentation and some other programming related content with ease. You only have to enter a search term in the box and get the results. This is simple and there are some wild cards are supported just like Google to obtain customized search results. All the instructions are on the main homepage and you can easily use it anytime to search almost anything related to development with ease.
There is no sign-up or registration is required in order to use it. You just go to the main website of the search engine from above and then you can simply start searching for anything you want. Bug details, module documentation, or anything related to a programming language you can search through it all. In the search results, you can see links from Stackoverflow, PyPI like sites there and nothing unrelated. All the other random results are filtered out and you can see just take what you want and I believe in more stable releases, it will work more effectively.
DevXplore
DevXplore is another free search engine for developers you can use. Use it to quickly find any developer stuff by just making a search query on the main UI. This is an open-source search engine that you can use to quickly find programming stuff such as snippets on a specific topic, tutorials, courses, documentation, codeplay, and others. It is fast with a simple interface and it is very straightforward as it only finds top 10 results for the entered search query.
You can reach the GitHub repository of DevXplore from above and then find the Heroku link in the description where it is hosted for now. If the current instance goes down, then you can always create your own and then simply start searching stuff on it. This is as simple as that. Besides, searching and getting the relevant results, you can filter the search results based on the options given on its main interface.
SearchCode
SearchCode is basically a code search engine that is why I am adding this into this list. Here using this website, you can search for any piece code. It uses Github, Bitbucket, Google Code, CodePlex, GitLab, Sourceforge, Minix3, Fedora Project like platforms to fetch the results. It lets you search for code, APIs, modules, methods, and much more for various programming languages. You just make a search by adding a few programming keywords and then it will fetch you all the results. You can filter results it produces by source, language, repository, etc. It yields multi-page search results so you can find what you looking for.
Reach the main website of SearchCode from above and then make a search. You don’t have to log in or register in order to use the search engine. Just enter whatever you want to search and then get the results. This is as simple as that. You can apply filters given on the right side and then you can simply do whatever you wan. Copy code snippets or just analyze the code. This search engine also comes with API support. So, if you want to integrate code search in one of your web or desktop app then you can use it.
CSS Search
CSS Search as the name suggests is a search engine to solve CSS related queries. This search engine is built on top of Google’s Custom Search feature and you can use it to find anything CSS related. It is more suited for front end developers and you are free to look for anything you want. This is simple and produces paginated results. And there is no registration or prior sign-up is required in order to use this simple search engine.
You can use this CSS Search right from the link above. After reaching the main website, you just enter your search query, and then you can simply see the results pulled from W3 and analyze them. It pulls a variety of results from W3 and you can just take the one matches your needs and you are simply done. However, I wish there was an option in it to pull results from other websites as well such as StackOverflow and W3 Schools.
Closing thoughts
These are the only free and dedicated search engines I could find for developers. Use these to quickly find and technical or programming related documentation or bug explanation. I liked the way these works and if you are looking for dedicated search engines for developers then you are at the right place. Just try them out and let me know what you think.
