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I switched to the Kagi paid search 2 months ago and I'm very happy with it. Of course, Google is free, but "search" is a product that is critical to my job and

I switched to the Kagi paid search 2 months ago and I'm very happy with it. Of course, Google is free, but "search" is a product that is critical to my job and I use it countless times per day. As such it felt reasonable to me to pay for a better search experience. That's in line with me spending extra for my computer, monitor, keyboard, etc. Because they're my tools of trade and I use them 8+ hours a day. I can recommend giving Kagi a try if you're in a similar position as me.

corytheboyd 3y ago
Also started using it a few months ago, and it’s so good that I forget it’s there most of the time. It’s fast, accurate, clutter free, and gets out of your way. More than happy to pay for this experience, because I want it to stick around forever.
Fabricio20 3y ago
This might come off weird but I can't help but comment on how markety/"I need to justify myself" your comment looked to me at first. You started off very normal "I switched ... and i'm very happy with it." But then there's almost an entire paragraph of "yes it makes sense, yes I made the right decision, it's just like spending on other things, etc..", up until the very end where you come back to "give it a try if you are in a similar position". Not trying to offend or anything and happy that it works out well for you! Just struck me weird when I first read it.
- throwaway81523 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification
- jemmyw 3y ago
  When you're spending money on a luxury item/service and there's a cheaper (in this case free) alternative, the it's hard to not write in this way. You are justifying it to yourself as much as anything. I also pay for Kagi. I'm not sure it is justified - it's not that cheap. They're pretty open about their costs though, and I think that demonstrates how much advertising is paying for other services. So I'm happy to pay for now just because I really dislike adverts.
  - mattrick 3y ago
    I agree with this. The only real advantage to Kagi over just using Google + Adblock for me is an easy way to just completely block certain sites from ever appearing in searches. It's probably not worth $10 a month but I pay for it because SEO spam sites bother me on a personal level.
    - beej71 3y ago
      I don't know how true this is, but I really like the concept of a customer-driven search engine versus an ad-driven one. The incentives are better aligned, and it frees Kagi up to really try to kick ass at search instead of kicking ass at ad revenue. I'm enjoying the features they've been adding, and an looking forward to more. Besides, what else was I going to do with that YouTube Premium money? ;)
  - carlosjobim 3y ago
    > luxury item/service The price for Kagi is not really in the class of "luxury" at $10 per month. It's peanuts really. In exchange you have the best search engine in the world. If you could upgrade an economy flight ticket to first class for $10, that would be a bargain. If you could buy the best bottle of wine in the world for just $10 more than your average bottle of wine, that would be a bargain. Kagi is the best search engine in the world, that's why I pay for it.
    - jemmyw 3y ago
      Luxury is a loaded term, I probably should have used something less vague. The examples you gave are still luxuries even if they're only $10 more than the basic version - the cheaper plane ticket still gets you there, the cheaper wine... I'm not really into wine, expensive wine doesn't taste especially different to me... still gets you drunk? Google still returns search results. You have to crawl through ads or search in different ways, but your result is still going to be in there. So if Kagi is a price and has extra comfort, it's a luxury.
      - carlosjobim 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- chatmasta 3y ago
  Every Kagi post is filled with comments like these and I've been wondering for a while whether it's organic or not. I'm inclined to think it's organic but the early adopters of Kagi are the type of people to write comments that sound like astroturfing, mostly as a manifestation of a sort of Stockholm Syndrome that emerges once they start paying for a service. Or to put it another way: I'd place more trust in a review from someone who received a lifetime of free Kagi access than I would in one from somebody who just started paying for it.
  - dhc02 3y ago
    I've been paying for about a year. Every time I'm reminded how much I'm paying, I think it sounds like too much. But every time I sit at a new computer or accidentally use the default Google search on my phone's home screen, I think, "Crap, this is terrible. I'm glad I am paying for Kagi."
  - viraptor 3y ago
    Or they just provide a really good service in the environment of ad-driven internet crap. I'm paying for it for the same reason as I pay for zerotier and give bcachefs donations - voting with my wallet for my environment to be a bit more like I wish it looked. And I'm happy to tell people about those things as long as they are better than alternatives.
  - beej71 3y ago
    Thing is, though, it's free to try it for yourself and see if it's worth it to you. I don't know that astroturfing is necessary or useful.
  - averageRoyalty 3y ago
    > mostly as a manifestation of a sort of Stockholm Syndrome that emerges once they start paying for a service I find this take quite odd. If you're paying for a service you're unhappy with, you stop. What's the element that's holding users in a "Stockholm Syndrome" scenario?
rspoerri 3y ago
kagi is the first search engine i dont regularely fall back to google when i get bad search results. because googles good results are usually none the better. In google i get more results however most of the added results are spam or duplicates.
ubutler 3y ago
For me, the ability to create custom bangs is worth it alone. I probably have close to a hundred bangs now and even created a bang to edit my bangs. I’m sure there are extensions that can replicate this behaviour but Kagi works on any device without any prior setup. My ‘site:reddit.com’ (!r) bang has to be my favourite, although I have found myself needing it less with Kagi since I’m already able to preference Reddit in search results.
- rhabarba 3y ago
  DuckDuckGo can do that for free though.
  - gkbrk 3y ago
    Where is the place to add personal bangs to DuckDuckGo? I can't find it in https://duckduckgo.com/bangs https://duckduckgo.com/bangs or https://duckduckgo.com/settings https://duckduckgo.com/settings.
    - rhabarba 3y ago
      AFAIR you can use and submit custom bangs. That said, they're curated, I think. See: https://duckduckgo.com/newbang https://duckduckgo.com/newbang

corytheboyd 3y ago

Also started using it a few months ago, and it’s so good that I forget it’s there most of the time. It’s fast, accurate, clutter free, and gets out of your way. More than happy to pay for this experience, because I want it to stick around forever.

Fabricio20 3y ago

This might come off weird but I can't help but comment on how markety/"I need to justify myself" your comment looked to me at first. You started off very normal "I switched ... and i'm very happy with it." But then there's almost an entire paragraph of "yes it makes sense, yes I made the right decision, it's just like spending on other things, etc..", up until the very end where you come back to "give it a try if you are in a similar position". Not trying to offend or anything and happy that it works out well for you! Just struck me weird when I first read it.

throwaway81523 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification
jemmyw 3y ago
When you're spending money on a luxury item/service and there's a cheaper (in this case free) alternative, the it's hard to not write in this way. You are justifying it to yourself as much as anything. I also pay for Kagi. I'm not sure it is justified - it's not that cheap. They're pretty open about their costs though, and I think that demonstrates how much advertising is paying for other services. So I'm happy to pay for now just because I really dislike adverts.
- mattrick 3y ago
  I agree with this. The only real advantage to Kagi over just using Google + Adblock for me is an easy way to just completely block certain sites from ever appearing in searches. It's probably not worth $10 a month but I pay for it because SEO spam sites bother me on a personal level.
  - beej71 3y ago
    I don't know how true this is, but I really like the concept of a customer-driven search engine versus an ad-driven one. The incentives are better aligned, and it frees Kagi up to really try to kick ass at search instead of kicking ass at ad revenue. I'm enjoying the features they've been adding, and an looking forward to more. Besides, what else was I going to do with that YouTube Premium money? ;)
- carlosjobim 3y ago
  > luxury item/service The price for Kagi is not really in the class of "luxury" at $10 per month. It's peanuts really. In exchange you have the best search engine in the world. If you could upgrade an economy flight ticket to first class for $10, that would be a bargain. If you could buy the best bottle of wine in the world for just $10 more than your average bottle of wine, that would be a bargain. Kagi is the best search engine in the world, that's why I pay for it.
  - jemmyw 3y ago
    Luxury is a loaded term, I probably should have used something less vague. The examples you gave are still luxuries even if they're only $10 more than the basic version - the cheaper plane ticket still gets you there, the cheaper wine... I'm not really into wine, expensive wine doesn't taste especially different to me... still gets you drunk? Google still returns search results. You have to crawl through ads or search in different ways, but your result is still going to be in there. So if Kagi is a price and has extra comfort, it's a luxury.
    - carlosjobim 3y ago
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
chatmasta 3y ago
Every Kagi post is filled with comments like these and I've been wondering for a while whether it's organic or not. I'm inclined to think it's organic but the early adopters of Kagi are the type of people to write comments that sound like astroturfing, mostly as a manifestation of a sort of Stockholm Syndrome that emerges once they start paying for a service. Or to put it another way: I'd place more trust in a review from someone who received a lifetime of free Kagi access than I would in one from somebody who just started paying for it.
- dhc02 3y ago
  I've been paying for about a year. Every time I'm reminded how much I'm paying, I think it sounds like too much. But every time I sit at a new computer or accidentally use the default Google search on my phone's home screen, I think, "Crap, this is terrible. I'm glad I am paying for Kagi."
- viraptor 3y ago
  Or they just provide a really good service in the environment of ad-driven internet crap. I'm paying for it for the same reason as I pay for zerotier and give bcachefs donations - voting with my wallet for my environment to be a bit more like I wish it looked. And I'm happy to tell people about those things as long as they are better than alternatives.
- beej71 3y ago
  Thing is, though, it's free to try it for yourself and see if it's worth it to you. I don't know that astroturfing is necessary or useful.
- averageRoyalty 3y ago
  > mostly as a manifestation of a sort of Stockholm Syndrome that emerges once they start paying for a service I find this take quite odd. If you're paying for a service you're unhappy with, you stop. What's the element that's holding users in a "Stockholm Syndrome" scenario?

rspoerri 3y ago

kagi is the first search engine i dont regularely fall back to google when i get bad search results. because googles good results are usually none the better. In google i get more results however most of the added results are spam or duplicates.

ubutler 3y ago

For me, the ability to create custom bangs is worth it alone. I probably have close to a hundred bangs now and even created a bang to edit my bangs. I’m sure there are extensions that can replicate this behaviour but Kagi works on any device without any prior setup. My ‘site:reddit.com’ (!r) bang has to be my favourite, although I have found myself needing it less with Kagi since I’m already able to preference Reddit in search results.

rhabarba 3y ago
DuckDuckGo can do that for free though.
- gkbrk 3y ago
  Where is the place to add personal bangs to DuckDuckGo? I can't find it in https://duckduckgo.com/bangs https://duckduckgo.com/bangs or https://duckduckgo.com/settings https://duckduckgo.com/settings.
  - rhabarba 3y ago
    AFAIR you can use and submit custom bangs. That said, they're curated, I think. See: https://duckduckgo.com/newbang https://duckduckgo.com/newbang