ReaderFunded · search tips

Search tips

The index covers sites that readers pay for: donations, memberships, sponsorships, verified in both directions (what is indexed and why). Plain words find pages that contain all of them; everything below narrows or reorders that.

Words

`cast iron skillet`	pages with every word. When a rare word empties the result, the search is retried without it and such pages say Missing: under the snippet, with a must include link that puts the word back as a requirement.
`"exact phrase"`	the words in that order, adjacent. A quoted word is never dropped.
`youtube video bbcode`	a video wanted: with youtube among the words, youtube and video step aside, the pages are searched for the other words, and a line above the results counts the funded channels' videos about them, a click away. verbatim searches the words as typed.
`skilet`	a word almost no indexed page contains, one letter from a word many do, gets Did you mean; with no results at all the corrected search is shown and the typed one is a link away. The corpus is the dictionary, so a creator's odd name is not a typo. `nospell=1` in the address searches the words as typed.
`-word`	pages containing the word are left out; `-"a phrase"` too.
`knit*`	words starting so: knitting, knitters, knitwear. On one word at a time.
`sourdough OR rye`	either word. OR in capitals binds its two neighbours, so `sourdough OR rye bread` is pages with bread and either of the others; `a OR b OR c` is one group of three. A bar does the same.

Which sites

`site:acoup.blog`	one site. On its own, with no words, it lists that site's indexed pages.
`cat:history`	the site's category; the category links on the home page are the same thing.
`lang:de`	the site's language. Without it, pages in your browser's language and English rank first and the rest follow; all languages on the results page lifts the preference.
`tier:B`	sites of at least that tier: `tier:A` for a published count of paying supporters, `tier:B` for that or an estimated count (A or B).
`tld:de`	sites under that top-level domain; `tld:co.uk` works.
`inurl:recipe`	pages whose address contains it, domain included.
`platform:patreon`	sites with a verified endpoint on that platform: patreon, ko-fi, substack, buymeacoffee, liberapay, github and the rest.
`paying>1000`	at least that many paying supporters, where the platform shows the count. `paying>2k` works too.
`dollars>50000`	at least that much yearly revenue, where it is shown.

Which pages

`no:ads,paywall`	drop pages flagged `ads`, `tracking`, `affiliate`, `consent`, `listicle`, `listing` or `paywall`. The checkboxes by the search box are the same switches and the browser remembers them.
`after:2026-01-01`	pages published on or after that day; `after:2026` and `after:2026-06` mean the first day. Pages with no known date are left out. The time row on the results page sets this for you.
`before:2026-06`	published on or before that day, same forms.
`scripts<=5`	pages with at most that many scripts. The median indexed page loads 23; a quarter load 8 or fewer. small web on the results page is `scripts<=5 no:ads,tracking,affiliate`: Marginalia's preset, over funded sites.

On the results page

in title matches the words in page titles only.
verbatim is the words as typed, Google's way: no word dropped when few pages have them all, no Did you mean. Quoting a single word does the same for that word alone.
newest first orders the best matches by date instead of score.
safe search is on unless you turn it off: the switch sits under the search box on the home page, where this browser remembers it, and under the results, where the setting travels in the link, so a shared link carries it.
more from this site appears when a site had more good matches than the two shown per site.
site opens everything the index knows about the site: funding, category, feed, neighbourhood. similar lists the funded sites the same sources link to - the way from one good site to the next. why? shows the evidence behind its weight, line by line.
videos runs the same words over the video channels of funded creators.
archive opens the Wayback Machine's copy of the page, for when it has gone.
Lucky on the home page, or &lucky=1 on a search address, goes straight to the first result.
Related, under the results, are the words that recur in the titles found and were not asked for: the next searches, from the results themselves and from no one else's searching.
feed is the search as RSS, newest first, for a feed reader to follow; &format=rss on any search link does the same.
Words that name a funded site - its domain, its name run together like waitbutwhy, or its title - put the site's card beside the results: standing, money, where it is verified, what the index holds.

Other pages

/top - the 10,000 best-funded sites, by category or language.
/new - this week's posts from funded sites, newest first; /new.xml is the same as RSS, ?cat= narrows both.
/explore - a random handful of funded sites; reload for another. /explore?like=acoup.blog shows the sites the same sources link to.
/c/<category> - a category's sites and a search box scoped to it.

Keyboard

/ to the search box · j and k down and up the results · Enter opens the chosen one, Shift+Enter in a new tab · Esc leaves the box. Nothing fires while you type.

From the address bar

The site describes itself to browsers, so you can search it without opening it first. In Chrome and Edge, after one visit, go to Settings › Search engine › Manage search engines: ReaderFunded is listed under Inactive shortcuts; activate it and type its shortcut, a space, and your words. In Firefox, right-click the address bar and choose Add "ReaderFunded", or click the + on the search icon. Safari has no such option; use a keyword bookmark for https://readerfunded.com/?q=%s. A keyword bookmark for https://readerfunded.com/?q=%s&lucky=1 is the one-keystroke "take me there".

Nothing per visitor is logged: no address, no user agent, no cookie. Searches are counted so the index can learn what it is asked and lacks, and the name of the site a visit came from, when the browser gives it.