3 ms·

Damnit I was on the narrow path of convincing myself to start paying for Kagi. I've been using QWANT but the search results are a bit off tbh. And they've start

by mrmlz 3y ago

Damnit I was on the narrow path of convincing myself to start paying for Kagi. I've been using QWANT but the search results are a bit off tbh. And they've started doing full-screen ads to turn of my adblock (which well to be fair thats the way they earn their keep).

Erratic6576 3y ago
For me, it’s not only the price you pay. Having a username attached to each your searches is the opposite of privacy, no matter how much you trust their legalese wording
- mrmlz 3y ago
  Oh well I don't assume I'm in anyway "anonymous" no matter if I got a username/ipadress/cookie/deep-state-monitoring attached to my searches. Things I html-POST to the web is no longer private.
  - Erratic6576 3y ago
    That’s another reason not to pay for privacy
- viraptor 3y ago
  I go the opposite way. I trust a company that takes my money to pay its costs to keep my privacy. As opposed to a company who "doesn't know who I am". (Apart from unique fingerprint https://amiunique.org/ https://amiunique.org/ over many queries over many months)
  - spiderice 3y ago
    I thought modern browsers were supposed to resist finger printing? This website is slightly horrifying.
    - kristofferR 3y ago
      You thought wrong, fingerprinting is impossible to resist.
    - viraptor 3y ago
      They try to. But every time a browser gets better at existing methods, it also gains new features which become new methods of identification. The web browser environment is broken. And if you get to fight it by using something with better protection, you're only exposing yourself more because no other users do the same thing.
- hackideiomat 3y ago
  Go look at MetaGer, they solved that issue
- tensor 3y ago
  99% of people are probably signed into a google account when they search google. If you want the sort of privacy you seem to want, stick to the dark web and similarly inconvenient tools. To maintain your level of privacy requires a drastically different lifestyle than most of us have or want.
  - daveoc64 3y ago
    A fresh incognito window on any other search engine isn't going to be linked to an account. That is for me one of the downsides of Kagi.
    - Sebb767 3y ago
      You can easily set your search engine in private windows to DuckDuckGo, MetaGer or whatever you prefer. Also, you probably are aware of this, but an incognito window won't magically stop trackers.
  - ziddoap 3y ago
    >To maintain your level of privacy They didn't state anything about their desired level of privacy other than not wanting a username attached to every search. That's not equivalent to needing to use TOR for every search. >99% of people are probably signed into a google account when they search google What is the relevance of this statement? Obviously this wouldn't apply to the parent poster, it doesn't refute anything the parent said, and at least anecdotally it's not true at all. >If you want the sort of privacy you seem to want, stick to the dark web and similarly inconvenient tools. Privacy is a spectrum, not some binary choice between having a username (and often real name) attached to every search vs. using the dark web for every search. You can land somewhere in the middle, for example: "I don't want a username attached to every search". There is no technical reason Kagi needs usernames, but they choose to require them. For some people, that points to the company not being as privacy-friendly as other people seem to think/claim.
  - Erratic6576 3y ago
    I dont browse signed in to my Google account, which I barely use. But Google has an open account on each of us, even if we block their servers at the firewall level
viraptor 3y ago
Check it out for your use case. (Have you used up the free searches?) I've not noticed any degradation for my searches. It's going to be different for everyone.
- mrmlz 3y ago
  I used them when they first announced their service. Was a nice experience afaik. QWANT is more like internet on hard-mode.. They don't really give you what you're looking for but close enough.. But I've become more dissatisfied with the results of late. I'll mull the decision for a while but I'm probably going to give Kagi another try.
- nusl 3y ago
  It could very well be different for everyone. Maybe I’m a generic bastard and Kagi doesn’t think I’m very interesting, so my results are also generic.
smcleod 3y ago
I haven’t notice any degradation in quality with Kagi, haven’t heard of it being a problem either?
Sebb767 3y ago
For what it's worth, whenever I've switched to DuckDuckGo, I've found myself adding a !g to nearly every search. Since I've switched to Kagi a few months ago, I've hardly ever had to go to another search engine. If you can spare it, I'd suggest you invest the 5$ for a small account and just test it out for a month.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
nusl 3y ago
It’s worth giving a try. You get a good amount of free queries to evaluate the product first.

by mrmlz 3y ago

Erratic6576 3y ago

For me, it’s not only the price you pay. Having a username attached to each your searches is the opposite of privacy, no matter how much you trust their legalese wording

mrmlz 3y ago
Oh well I don't assume I'm in anyway "anonymous" no matter if I got a username/ipadress/cookie/deep-state-monitoring attached to my searches. Things I html-POST to the web is no longer private.
- Erratic6576 3y ago
  That’s another reason not to pay for privacy
viraptor 3y ago
I go the opposite way. I trust a company that takes my money to pay its costs to keep my privacy. As opposed to a company who "doesn't know who I am". (Apart from unique fingerprint https://amiunique.org/ https://amiunique.org/ over many queries over many months)
- spiderice 3y ago
  I thought modern browsers were supposed to resist finger printing? This website is slightly horrifying.
  - kristofferR 3y ago
    You thought wrong, fingerprinting is impossible to resist.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    They try to. But every time a browser gets better at existing methods, it also gains new features which become new methods of identification. The web browser environment is broken. And if you get to fight it by using something with better protection, you're only exposing yourself more because no other users do the same thing.
hackideiomat 3y ago
Go look at MetaGer, they solved that issue
tensor 3y ago
99% of people are probably signed into a google account when they search google. If you want the sort of privacy you seem to want, stick to the dark web and similarly inconvenient tools. To maintain your level of privacy requires a drastically different lifestyle than most of us have or want.
- daveoc64 3y ago
  A fresh incognito window on any other search engine isn't going to be linked to an account. That is for me one of the downsides of Kagi.
  - Sebb767 3y ago
    You can easily set your search engine in private windows to DuckDuckGo, MetaGer or whatever you prefer. Also, you probably are aware of this, but an incognito window won't magically stop trackers.
- ziddoap 3y ago
  >To maintain your level of privacy They didn't state anything about their desired level of privacy other than not wanting a username attached to every search. That's not equivalent to needing to use TOR for every search. >99% of people are probably signed into a google account when they search google What is the relevance of this statement? Obviously this wouldn't apply to the parent poster, it doesn't refute anything the parent said, and at least anecdotally it's not true at all. >If you want the sort of privacy you seem to want, stick to the dark web and similarly inconvenient tools. Privacy is a spectrum, not some binary choice between having a username (and often real name) attached to every search vs. using the dark web for every search. You can land somewhere in the middle, for example: "I don't want a username attached to every search". There is no technical reason Kagi needs usernames, but they choose to require them. For some people, that points to the company not being as privacy-friendly as other people seem to think/claim.
- Erratic6576 3y ago
  I dont browse signed in to my Google account, which I barely use. But Google has an open account on each of us, even if we block their servers at the firewall level

viraptor 3y ago

Check it out for your use case. (Have you used up the free searches?) I've not noticed any degradation for my searches. It's going to be different for everyone.

mrmlz 3y ago
I used them when they first announced their service. Was a nice experience afaik. QWANT is more like internet on hard-mode.. They don't really give you what you're looking for but close enough.. But I've become more dissatisfied with the results of late. I'll mull the decision for a while but I'm probably going to give Kagi another try.
nusl 3y ago
It could very well be different for everyone. Maybe I’m a generic bastard and Kagi doesn’t think I’m very interesting, so my results are also generic.

smcleod 3y ago

I haven’t notice any degradation in quality with Kagi, haven’t heard of it being a problem either?

Sebb767 3y ago

For what it's worth, whenever I've switched to DuckDuckGo, I've found myself adding a !g to nearly every search. Since I've switched to Kagi a few months ago, I've hardly ever had to go to another search engine. If you can spare it, I'd suggest you invest the 5$ for a small account and just test it out for a month.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

nusl 3y ago

It’s worth giving a try. You get a good amount of free queries to evaluate the product first.