diff --git a/searx/engines/yacy.py b/searx/engines/yacy.py
index 17e2a7aa..3d26c9cc 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yacy.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yacy.py
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ number_of_results = 5
 # search-url
 base_url = 'http://localhost:8090'
 search_url = '/yacysearch.json?{query}'\
-                             '&startRecord={offset}'\
-                             '&maximumRecords={limit}'\
-                             '&contentdom={search_type}'\
-                             '&resource=global'             # noqa
+             '&startRecord={offset}'\
+             '&maximumRecords={limit}'\
+             '&contentdom={search_type}'\
+             '&resource=global'
 
 # yacy specific type-definitions
 search_types = {'general': 'text',
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ search_types = {'general': 'text',
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
     offset = (params['pageno'] - 1) * number_of_results
-    search_type = search_types.get(params['category'], '0')
+    search_type = search_types.get(params.get('category'), '0')
 
     params['url'] = base_url +\
         search_url.format(query=urlencode({'query': query}),
@@ -66,9 +66,12 @@ def response(resp):
     if not raw_search_results:
         return []
 
-    search_results = raw_search_results.get('channels', {})[0].get('items', [])
+    search_results = raw_search_results.get('channels', [])
 
-    for result in search_results:
+    if len(search_results) == 0:
+        return []
+
+    for result in search_results[0].get('items', []):
         # parse image results
         if result.get('image'):
             # append result
@@ -88,7 +91,7 @@ def response(resp):
                             'content': result['description'],
                             'publishedDate': publishedDate})
 
-        #TODO parse video, audio and file results
+        # TODO parse video, audio and file results
 
     # return results
     return results
diff --git a/searx/tests/engines/test_yacy.py b/searx/tests/engines/test_yacy.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f49532cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/searx/tests/engines/test_yacy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+from collections import defaultdict
+import mock
+from searx.engines import yacy
+from searx.testing import SearxTestCase
+
+
+class TestYacyEngine(SearxTestCase):
+
+    def test_request(self):
+        query = 'test_query'
+        dicto = defaultdict(dict)
+        dicto['pageno'] = 1
+        dicto['language'] = 'fr_FR'
+        params = yacy.request(query, dicto)
+        self.assertIn('url', params)
+        self.assertIn(query, params['url'])
+        self.assertIn('localhost', params['url'])
+        self.assertIn('fr', params['url'])
+
+        dicto['language'] = 'all'
+        params = yacy.request(query, dicto)
+        self.assertIn('url', params)
+        self.assertNotIn('lr=lang_', params['url'])
+
+    def test_response(self):
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, yacy.response, None)
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, yacy.response, [])
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, yacy.response, '')
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, yacy.response, '[]')
+
+        response = mock.Mock(text='{}')
+        self.assertEqual(yacy.response(response), [])
+
+        response = mock.Mock(text='{"data": []}')
+        self.assertEqual(yacy.response(response), [])
+
+        json = """
+        {
+          "channels": [
+            {
+              "title": "YaCy P2P-Search for test",
+              "description": "Search for test",
+              "link": "http://search.yacy.de:7001/yacysearch.html?query=test&resource=global&contentdom=0",
+              "image": {
+                "url": "http://search.yacy.de:7001/env/grafics/yacy.png",
+                "title": "Search for test",
+                "link": "http://search.yacy.de:7001/yacysearch.html?query=test&resource=global&contentdom=0"
+              },
+              "totalResults": "249",
+              "startIndex": "0",
+              "itemsPerPage": "5",
+              "searchTerms": "test",
+              "items": [
+                {
+                  "title": "This is the title",
+                  "link": "http://this.is.the.url",
+                  "code": "",
+                  "description": "This should be the content",
+                  "pubDate": "Sat, 08 Jun 2013 02:00:00 +0200",
+                  "size": "44213",
+                  "sizename": "43 kbyte",
+                  "guid": "lzh_1T_5FP-A",
+                  "faviconCode": "XTS4uQ_5FP-A",
+                  "host": "www.gamestar.de",
+                  "path": "/spiele/city-of-heroes-freedom/47019.html",
+                  "file": "47019.html",
+                  "urlhash": "lzh_1T_5FP-A",
+                  "ranking": "0.20106804"
+                },
+                {
+                  "title": "This is the title2",
+                  "icon": "/ViewImage.png?maxwidth=96&maxheight=96&code=7EbAbW6BpPOA",
+                  "image": "http://image.url/image.png",
+                  "cache": "/ViewImage.png?quadratic=&url=http://golem.ivwbox.de/cgi-bin/ivw/CP/G_INET?d=14071378",
+                  "url": "http://this.is.the.url",
+                  "urlhash": "7EbAbW6BpPOA",
+                  "host": "www.golem.de",
+                  "width": "-1",
+                  "height": "-1"
+                }
+              ]
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+        """
+        response = mock.Mock(text=json)
+        results = yacy.response(response)
+        self.assertEqual(type(results), list)
+        self.assertEqual(len(results), 2)
+        self.assertEqual(results[0]['title'], 'This is the title')
+        self.assertEqual(results[0]['url'], 'http://this.is.the.url')
+        self.assertEqual(results[0]['content'], 'This should be the content')
+        self.assertEqual(results[1]['img_src'], 'http://image.url/image.png')
+        self.assertEqual(results[1]['content'], '')
+        self.assertEqual(results[1]['url'], 'http://this.is.the.url')
+        self.assertEqual(results[1]['title'], 'This is the title2')
diff --git a/searx/tests/test_engines.py b/searx/tests/test_engines.py
index e3e0938c..4a27f5ad 100644
--- a/searx/tests/test_engines.py
+++ b/searx/tests/test_engines.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ from searx.tests.engines.test_subtitleseeker import *  # noqa
 from searx.tests.engines.test_twitter import *  # noqa
 from searx.tests.engines.test_vimeo import *  # noqa
 from searx.tests.engines.test_www500px import *  # noqa
-from searx.tests.engines.test_youtube import *  # noqa
+from searx.tests.engines.test_yacy import *  # noqa
 from searx.tests.engines.test_yahoo import *  # noqa
+from searx.tests.engines.test_youtube import *  # noqa
 from searx.tests.engines.test_yahoo_news import *  # noqa