6 ms·

While I might be a target audience for them and willing to pay a nominal fee monthly for good search I'm quite sure there isn't a market for it.

verve_rat 4y ago
I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there is a viable business in selling a quality search engine. Maybe not dominate the market, take over the world, but not every thing has to be that.
- prox 4y ago
  Every month I see my user experience decline with Google, in so much a paid search solution would be a blessing. Imagine a search engine that truly is private, containerized search and does not need to sell you anything. It only wants to serve you true relevance and accuracy. That engine also skips over all monetized sites that serve more than 5-10% ads. Prefers cookieless sites. That search engine would be bliss.
  - darinf 4y ago
    Working on much of this at Neeva. We have a free tier, no ads cluttering the results. Just focused on the user experience. We also offer a premium tier for those who are keen to support us.
    - prox 4y ago
      Unfortunately the app is not available in my region it says. Will there be an in browser solution?
- bkobren 4y ago
  We have been working on exactly that at Neeva and the response has been very positive in terms of growth and adoption. Neeva offers a freemium model (free basic and premium for $5/Month which includes paid versions of VPN and a password manager), you can connect third party apps like dropbox and email putting all your personal docs in one search along with websearch, both versions are ad-free and private, it's available to anyone in U.S. and we are building our own independent stack to make the search experience unique and better.
Nextgrid 4y ago
Just 1% of Google's market might be enough to sustain a non-bloated, VC-free company and make a good product. The Bloomberg Terminal is extremely expensive and yet companies pay for it because it makes their traders' jobs so much more efficient. I don't see why companies wouldn't do the same for a search engine that filters out all the bullshit so their employees don't have to waste their time wading through it.
- FredPret 4y ago
  1% of people who use Google is a hell of a lot. Also, Bloomberg doesn’t just search, it also provides data
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    Categorized search results are also data. Bloomberg is no different to Google in this regard, it doesn't generate the data, it just fetches and aggregates market data from various sources which anyone could technically do with enough effort and yet people pay for it.
    - FredPret 4y ago
      They add their own interpretations and calculations of footnotes to financial statements. It’s a step beyond categorizing and aggregating.
- smt88 4y ago
  > Just 1% of Google's market Google has 4.3B users, so 1% of that is 43M. With a $5 subscription, Kagi would have $215M in monthly revenue, enough to pay for 14,000 developer salaries. A more reasonable target might be 500k users at, let's say, $10/mo.
- freediver 4y ago
  You are right. And the actual number is lot smaller. We just need 0.001% of Google users to be sustainable with the current team size. (or about 50,000 users out of 4.3B Google users). And if you find 50k users, you will find 100k. First 5k is tricky! (Kagi founder here)
greybox 4y ago
You really think you're unique?
- Beltiras 4y ago
  No, but one among few.
kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
At this point I’d pay for it. Every search I do these days is a fight with Google to find pearls buried in the overwhelming muck. I’d sincerely like to see how search curation would change if the intent was to keep me as a paying customer, not to show me more ads.
mark_l_watson 4y ago
I am using their beta search service. It does seem nice enough. I am not sure yet how it compares with DDG, but I am probably going to sign up as a paying customer.
- darinf 4y ago
  DDG is just repackaged Bing with their own ads inserted.
bkobren 4y ago
Give Neeva a try (disclosure I work with them). We offer a freemium model (free basic and premium version for $5/month that includes paid versions of VPN and password manager), it's ad-free and private, it's available to anyone in U.S. and we are building our own independent stack to make the search experience unique and better.
- fils 4y ago
  Just a user of Neeva here but a happy one. Also very excited to hear about the work toward an independent stack! Enjoy the spaces and immersive search UIs for various types of searches. Neeva make search fun again. ;)

verve_rat 4y ago

I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there is a viable business in selling a quality search engine. Maybe not dominate the market, take over the world, but not every thing has to be that.

prox 4y ago
Every month I see my user experience decline with Google, in so much a paid search solution would be a blessing. Imagine a search engine that truly is private, containerized search and does not need to sell you anything. It only wants to serve you true relevance and accuracy. That engine also skips over all monetized sites that serve more than 5-10% ads. Prefers cookieless sites. That search engine would be bliss.
- darinf 4y ago
  Working on much of this at Neeva. We have a free tier, no ads cluttering the results. Just focused on the user experience. We also offer a premium tier for those who are keen to support us.
  - prox 4y ago
    Unfortunately the app is not available in my region it says. Will there be an in browser solution?
bkobren 4y ago
We have been working on exactly that at Neeva and the response has been very positive in terms of growth and adoption. Neeva offers a freemium model (free basic and premium for $5/Month which includes paid versions of VPN and a password manager), you can connect third party apps like dropbox and email putting all your personal docs in one search along with websearch, both versions are ad-free and private, it's available to anyone in U.S. and we are building our own independent stack to make the search experience unique and better.

Nextgrid 4y ago

Just 1% of Google's market might be enough to sustain a non-bloated, VC-free company and make a good product. The Bloomberg Terminal is extremely expensive and yet companies pay for it because it makes their traders' jobs so much more efficient. I don't see why companies wouldn't do the same for a search engine that filters out all the bullshit so their employees don't have to waste their time wading through it.

FredPret 4y ago
1% of people who use Google is a hell of a lot. Also, Bloomberg doesn’t just search, it also provides data
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Categorized search results are also data. Bloomberg is no different to Google in this regard, it doesn't generate the data, it just fetches and aggregates market data from various sources which anyone could technically do with enough effort and yet people pay for it.
  - FredPret 4y ago
    They add their own interpretations and calculations of footnotes to financial statements. It’s a step beyond categorizing and aggregating.
smt88 4y ago
> Just 1% of Google's market Google has 4.3B users, so 1% of that is 43M. With a $5 subscription, Kagi would have $215M in monthly revenue, enough to pay for 14,000 developer salaries. A more reasonable target might be 500k users at, let's say, $10/mo.
freediver 4y ago
You are right. And the actual number is lot smaller. We just need 0.001% of Google users to be sustainable with the current team size. (or about 50,000 users out of 4.3B Google users). And if you find 50k users, you will find 100k. First 5k is tricky! (Kagi founder here)

greybox 4y ago

You really think you're unique?

Beltiras 4y ago
No, but one among few.

kwertyoowiyop 4y ago

At this point I’d pay for it. Every search I do these days is a fight with Google to find pearls buried in the overwhelming muck. I’d sincerely like to see how search curation would change if the intent was to keep me as a paying customer, not to show me more ads.

mark_l_watson 4y ago

I am using their beta search service. It does seem nice enough. I am not sure yet how it compares with DDG, but I am probably going to sign up as a paying customer.

darinf 4y ago
DDG is just repackaged Bing with their own ads inserted.

bkobren 4y ago

Give Neeva a try (disclosure I work with them). We offer a freemium model (free basic and premium version for $5/month that includes paid versions of VPN and password manager), it's ad-free and private, it's available to anyone in U.S. and we are building our own independent stack to make the search experience unique and better.

fils 4y ago
Just a user of Neeva here but a happy one. Also very excited to hear about the work toward an independent stack! Enjoy the spaces and immersive search UIs for various types of searches. Neeva make search fun again. ;)