171–180 of 983 posts
I would really love to see an API, possibly with a pay per request pricing.
They do have exactly such a thing: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/api/overview.html
Three years ago, I migrated from Gmail to FastMail because I was afraid of losing access to my digital life on Google's whim. Two years ago, I found out that my favorite Youtube creators were all on Nebula. One year ago, I switched my phone to LineageOS to get security updates a little longer. A month ago, I installed OpenStreetMaps because Google Maps got really bad at showing points-of-interest. And today, Kagi rem…
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>This seems like the buffet or gym model where they want people just mindlessly paying and then not using it that much. I see this as the point to any subscription model. Of course they want you paying for more than you use/consume.
Right and this is the reason I don’t like subscriptions. Id rather buy things. I don’t want a car subscription. I want to buy a car. I don’t want a book subscription. I want to buy a car. I don’t a compute subscription. I want to buy compute hours. Etc etc
Or a computER.
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Can the search result quality be quantified somehow? I remember when Google was new, and I used to use Altavista and Hotbot and those older search engines, the difference in results were like night and day, and Google's results were "wow!" Does Kagi give a similar impression as Google did then?
I think I belong to the generation that grew up using just Google so I cannot comment on quantification. The biggest difference for me is that on Kagi, the first results are always relevant instead of clutter/ads that you see on Google.
Google represented a huge step up in search result quality generally. But in recent years, the quality has really slid – even while tuning results using more advanced Google features.
I don't think Google cares much about search result quality these days, except insofar as they have to keep a minimum threshold just to drive their ad and analytics revenue.
There is a lot of opportunity for other search engines to make strides forward in quality relative to Google these days.
I wish there was a way to just buy 10,000 searches as a block and charge down against it. I don’t search that much. I don’t want another monthly service fee. But I love the idea of paying for search. Id happily pay $5 for 300 searches, but don’t want to do that every month. This seems like the buffet or gym model where they want people just mindlessly paying and then not using it that much.
By making it feel a finite resource, some percentage of the users will start to ration their use of your service and/or do some deliberation before using it ("I kinda want to look that up, but I don't know if I want to spend one of my searches"), and introducing that kind of usage friction can even lead to a subtle resentment of your service.
Nothing to complain about here, just overall very pleased.
I think Kagi sounds interesting but the business model is a tough one outside of niche HN types. E.g. I am interested but can't be bothered to pursue it as it seems like an unnecessary additional SAS model cost to my monthly budget. How does search quality really change my life? Entrenched behavior is tough to overcome especially ostensibly free products.
A lot. I make dozens and dozens of searches on an average day.
I'm also somewhat cheap when it comes to subscriptions.
Throwing $10/mo. for something I can get "for free" is not a light choice. But...
1) I don't like Google's philosophy, I don't like being the product, I like being a customer
2) Google Search results have gradually gotten worse, mostly because of SEO spam
3) I don't really trust DuckDuckGo or Startpage, their model is essentially also advertising
I prefer to not go to the mall for recreation or work either.
Also, if anyone finds it substantially better, could you give some example queries on which it does better?
Call me tight-fisted or naive or whatever but I don't see $10/month as a remotely attractive price point and I don't see how they can justify it, especially when their results are still powered at least in part by external indexers. $10/month can get you terabytes of media on streaming platforms. $1-2/month is what I would pay.
I definitely wouldn't want to associate my entire search history with my real identity
Also, do you really think google doesn’t know who you are?
One would have to go to extraordinary lengths to hide your real name nowadays from even a talented curious searcher never mind google itself.
Even Ross Ulnricht couldn’t do it. And that boy had a LOT to lose.