4 ms·

Still, give Kagi a chance. I don't work for them, I don't have friends who work for them, I'm just a guy who uses Kagi and will never look back. It isn't expens

Still, give Kagi a chance. I don't work for them, I don't have friends who work for them, I'm just a guy who uses Kagi and will never look back. It isn't expensive and it's SO worth it.

mattbaker 2y ago
Same, best digital product I’ve spent money on in a long time. It’s an improvement over Google, and well worth the price.
- stavros 2y ago
  I tried it for two months and it was good, but not that much better that I'd spend $10/mo on it. The results were basically about the same as DDG. I can't really relate to all the praise I see about it. However, I do have to say that, when I was looking for a very specific post, I spent around twenty minutes on Google and DDG and they came back with trash, whereas Kagi found it right away. In that one instance it was, indeed, fantastic.
  - digging 2y ago
    I don't feel I have enough ground truth to know how good Kagi's search is in absolute terms (eg. there are plenty of searches where I still just "fail to find" and I don't know if it's my fault or theirs), I just know that I get less "junk" results with it than with DDG by far. With the additional ability to customize results and filters, I'd say it's a good product and it's worth a small subscription fee. The quality of all free search is just bad. Kagi, even when it fails, is basically the difference between me looking for something or just giving up and deciding it's not worthwhile. Kagi's not magic-tier like early Google was - it's basically just the only modern web search engine.
    - nnf 2y ago
      “fail to find” is one of my favorite aspects of Kagi. When I get that message, I know I need to adjust my search terms. In contrast, Google wants to show me something even if there are no good results, but when it’s just junk, that wastes my time.
mzhaase 2y ago
Been using it for a week and it is so nice to not have to your results cluttered by marketing bs. I'm faster at work as well because I find actually relevant informational.
dawnerd 2y ago
Switched about ten months ago and it’s been so good I forget it’s even not Google sometimes.
- stavros 2y ago
  If you forget it's not Google, I don't want to sign up. I want something that reminds me all the time that it's not Google, mainly by its ability to actually find the things I search for.
  - worldsayshi 2y ago
    I suppose what they mean is that it's easy to forget that it isn't Google from ten years ago when Google was good?
    - dawnerd 2y ago
      Exactly. Going to real Google now is like ?? How did I use this before?
  - mordae 2y ago
    It's very much not Google and you find things faster. They have 100 free searches for you to try.
  - dghlsakjg 2y ago
    I'm not sure what they mean. I have mine tuned to the point that I can immediately tell when I accidentally google something because the results are so shockingly bad. Kagi is REALLY good at giving you the ability to filter out the type of results you never want to see.
    - stavros 2y ago
      My main problem is that I don't so much have results I never want to see, as I want to be able to get results from blogs and small sites, the articles that are really interesting. Google never shows you anything any more from sites that aren't in the top 100 sites by traffic, and many of my searches don't fit that pattern. Kagi does better, but there isn't a "downrank all the low quality spam" option.
ibejoeb 2y ago
I don't work there or know anyone who does either, but I wish I did. Kagi is great. It is kinda expensive, but the quality is very high and I search all day long. It's definitely worth it.
koutsie 2y ago
I'd love to still use it, alas they've partnered with Brave - which made my stop immediately after hearing that - partnering with a crypto+advertising company - no thanks. It might still be the best option of the bunch, which is sad.
- drilbo 2y ago
  Source? All I can find is them integrating Brave Search API as one of their multiple sources. I wouldn't call that a partnership.
  - koutsie 2y ago
    It seems they've redacted pretty much everything related to that, and any search sources for that matter. Had to join the discord to even see someone talk about this; https://layer8.space/@k/113350415680785878 https://layer8.space/@k/113350415680785878
wenc 2y ago
I was a paid Kagi user. It’s one of those tools where I have to say, “it doesn’t fit me but you’re doing something good in the world so keep going.” I don’t do the kind of searches where Kagi is a lot better than Google (I bet folks here do). On the searches I do want to do, i.e steaming movies, local business and map related, Kagi is not yet strong at. I kept having to !g. So I’m back to Google which I find fits me better. But I’m glad Kagi exists.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  The strange thing is that kagi gets most of its search results from other providers like brave, bing and I believe even Google. It should be able to find those things. I use SearXNG by the way. Kagi is better but I like the way I can configure SearXNG.
  - wenc 2y ago
    Try looking for your a local Thai restaurant in your area. Kagi doesn’t profile you so it doesn’t know where you are, so any local searches involve adding a keyword or doing the search a second time with !g. I just tried it on Kagi and it suggested a Yelp link for restaurants in McKinney TX which is nowhere near where I am. Google uses what it knows about you as context — which arguably many folks here are against— but it does get me the right results in one go.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      Ah ok that explains a lot. I use a lot of privacy protection when I use any Google features (like running them in a separate Firefox container so it can't see other web activity). So I'm used to specifying that already.
    - freediver 2y ago
      > Google uses what it knows about you as context — which arguably many folks here are against— but it does get me the right results in one go. Kagi does let you opt-in your location to improve searches. So there is a way and the user is in full control.

Still, give Kagi a chance. I don't work for them, I don't have friends who work for them, I'm just a guy who uses Kagi and will never look back. It isn't expensive and it's SO worth it.

mattbaker 2y ago

Same, best digital product I’ve spent money on in a long time. It’s an improvement over Google, and well worth the price.

stavros 2y ago
I tried it for two months and it was good, but not that much better that I'd spend $10/mo on it. The results were basically about the same as DDG. I can't really relate to all the praise I see about it. However, I do have to say that, when I was looking for a very specific post, I spent around twenty minutes on Google and DDG and they came back with trash, whereas Kagi found it right away. In that one instance it was, indeed, fantastic.
- digging 2y ago
  I don't feel I have enough ground truth to know how good Kagi's search is in absolute terms (eg. there are plenty of searches where I still just "fail to find" and I don't know if it's my fault or theirs), I just know that I get less "junk" results with it than with DDG by far. With the additional ability to customize results and filters, I'd say it's a good product and it's worth a small subscription fee. The quality of all free search is just bad. Kagi, even when it fails, is basically the difference between me looking for something or just giving up and deciding it's not worthwhile. Kagi's not magic-tier like early Google was - it's basically just the only modern web search engine.
  - nnf 2y ago
    “fail to find” is one of my favorite aspects of Kagi. When I get that message, I know I need to adjust my search terms. In contrast, Google wants to show me something even if there are no good results, but when it’s just junk, that wastes my time.

mzhaase 2y ago

Been using it for a week and it is so nice to not have to your results cluttered by marketing bs. I'm faster at work as well because I find actually relevant informational.

dawnerd 2y ago

Switched about ten months ago and it’s been so good I forget it’s even not Google sometimes.

stavros 2y ago
If you forget it's not Google, I don't want to sign up. I want something that reminds me all the time that it's not Google, mainly by its ability to actually find the things I search for.
- worldsayshi 2y ago
  I suppose what they mean is that it's easy to forget that it isn't Google from ten years ago when Google was good?
  - dawnerd 2y ago
    Exactly. Going to real Google now is like ?? How did I use this before?
- mordae 2y ago
  It's very much not Google and you find things faster. They have 100 free searches for you to try.
- dghlsakjg 2y ago
  I'm not sure what they mean. I have mine tuned to the point that I can immediately tell when I accidentally google something because the results are so shockingly bad. Kagi is REALLY good at giving you the ability to filter out the type of results you never want to see.
  - stavros 2y ago
    My main problem is that I don't so much have results I never want to see, as I want to be able to get results from blogs and small sites, the articles that are really interesting. Google never shows you anything any more from sites that aren't in the top 100 sites by traffic, and many of my searches don't fit that pattern. Kagi does better, but there isn't a "downrank all the low quality spam" option.

ibejoeb 2y ago

I don't work there or know anyone who does either, but I wish I did. Kagi is great. It is kinda expensive, but the quality is very high and I search all day long. It's definitely worth it.

koutsie 2y ago

I'd love to still use it, alas they've partnered with Brave - which made my stop immediately after hearing that - partnering with a crypto+advertising company - no thanks. It might still be the best option of the bunch, which is sad.

drilbo 2y ago
Source? All I can find is them integrating Brave Search API as one of their multiple sources. I wouldn't call that a partnership.
- koutsie 2y ago
  It seems they've redacted pretty much everything related to that, and any search sources for that matter. Had to join the discord to even see someone talk about this; https://layer8.space/@k/113350415680785878 https://layer8.space/@k/113350415680785878

wenc 2y ago

I was a paid Kagi user. It’s one of those tools where I have to say, “it doesn’t fit me but you’re doing something good in the world so keep going.” I don’t do the kind of searches where Kagi is a lot better than Google (I bet folks here do). On the searches I do want to do, i.e steaming movies, local business and map related, Kagi is not yet strong at. I kept having to !g. So I’m back to Google which I find fits me better. But I’m glad Kagi exists.

wkat4242 2y ago
The strange thing is that kagi gets most of its search results from other providers like brave, bing and I believe even Google. It should be able to find those things. I use SearXNG by the way. Kagi is better but I like the way I can configure SearXNG.
- wenc 2y ago
  Try looking for your a local Thai restaurant in your area. Kagi doesn’t profile you so it doesn’t know where you are, so any local searches involve adding a keyword or doing the search a second time with !g. I just tried it on Kagi and it suggested a Yelp link for restaurants in McKinney TX which is nowhere near where I am. Google uses what it knows about you as context — which arguably many folks here are against— but it does get me the right results in one go.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    Ah ok that explains a lot. I use a lot of privacy protection when I use any Google features (like running them in a separate Firefox container so it can't see other web activity). So I'm used to specifying that already.
  - freediver 2y ago
    > Google uses what it knows about you as context — which arguably many folks here are against— but it does get me the right results in one go. Kagi does let you opt-in your location to improve searches. So there is a way and the user is in full control.