Been subbed to Kagi for a few months and think it is mostly equivalent to google — which is big praise.
I’d say local searches are a little rough still but otherwise have rarely needed the g! bang
Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
291–300 of 983 posts
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some platforms actually do account for this by having special "developing countries" discounts, or some other euphemism like that. IIRC Gumroad is one that supports this.
Pretty funny that when textbook publishers try to do this, people really hate it.
I think most people have a negative kneejerk reaction to asymmetrical pricing when they're the ones paying more. Generally for most things, the cost of delivering a product or service doesn't vary too much based on factors like local living wages, so at the end of the day, you're paying more margin than some other people are. In some cases, maybe your group is flat-out subsidizing other groups.
It does seem people's opinions on this are cultural and situational, though. Like many people do not feel particularly upset by a veteran or senior discount. But for textbooks, I think most people feel like the massive margins publishers push are already unreasonable and thus the existence of asymmetric pricing is actually evidence that the margins are larger than necessary.
Not sure, though. Most practices that involve some form of discrimination are bound to be controversial in some way. (Even describing them using the term 'discrimination' is sometimes controversial due to the connotations that the word carries, but alas.)
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#293I like the statement they made on their jobs page: Core Front-end Team Passion for creating delightful and swift user interfaces. Proficiency in HTML, CSS, and _an understanding that JavaScript can be used sparingly to enhance, not create, product experiences._ Ability to prototype rapidly. Fun fact: At Kagi, we prioritize speed, to the point where *all functionalities of Kagi Search (except Stripe checkout and Maps)…
In my opinion, in not using JavaScript they are missing out on a really nice DX. This is the kind of app that could be highly optimized _despite_ using React or something similar. Knee-capping your hiring to Make A Point (tm) is silly.
I have yet to see a website that felt better to use after switching to React or similar. To me it always feels like a straight downgrade in UX. A site that felt nice and snappy suddenly becomes heavy and sluggish.
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#294Unlimited searches are great to see included by default. A big part of my search engine usage is as a glorified bookmark manager, where I know I want to go to a specific MDN page, but I don't want to open MDN and search for that page specifically. It always felt awkward going all-in on Kagi when I knew that most of my searches were served just as well by an ad-supported search engine.
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
True, but there's also the reality that maintenance costs increase over time for software projects as upstream vendors change their pricing models and codebases grow in size and complexity. I can see why a product like Kagi wants to keep their traffic tied to recurring revenue instead of selling a bunch of credits upfront.
People would need to buy more credits. I’m not asking for an eternal membership where I pay once and am done.
There would be many customers buying on different schedules and that would aggregate into a predictable cash flow.
This is a solved problem as companies have sold software for 50 years.
Subscriptions are more profitable, that’s why companies do it. Not because there’s any realistic business reason (other than wanting more money for less work).
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#296Good to see DuckDuckGo's Bang syntax [1] has become commonplace with alt search engines. Following convention, Kagi lets you append !g to divert the search on Google. A simple escape hatch like that is worthwhile as Google is often superior for local-area searches, in my experience.
I've dabbled with a multitude of search engines recently and that is one thing badly missing from Bing.
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#297Would love some stats in the near future of whether Google et al. are using these lists (blocked, lowered, raised, pinned) to their advantage somehow. Having said that, they have the data themselves, they just choose not to use it because it’s not in their best interests.. https://kagi.com/stats?stat=leaderboard&k=1
I think you answered it yourself - other search engines know which clicks result in the longest dwell on page (as they run analytics and redirect search result clicks through their own referral page).
They could optimize their results for best results, but they don't want to, as that would reduce ad revenue.
While it sounds very conspiratorial, I don't think many teams in big ad/search companies are being measured by the lack of use of the product. For search, customer satisfaction is likely a first page answer resulting in no more searches on the topic (i.e. less use). For a company hosting ads in search results pages, that's a negative outcome. But it's what users want!
I believe if minds were put to it, and commercial drivers put aside, Google or bing or anyone else could very quickly deal with the scourge of poor results and SEO spam. But when you get revenue from search results page impressions, ad clicks, and impressions on the junk sites in listings, the incentives just don't align with the user.
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#298Was an early adopter and also love it. Very high quality results. No bullshit Google ads. Extremely easy to use out of the box with no customisation and lots of advanced features.
Any chance of some bonuses for the early adopter people ? Totally get that you want to keep "Ultimate" it's own higher tier thing but maybe there's an in between ?
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#299"Unlimited" positioning rubs me the wrong way. It really means "until we deem to be no longer reasonable for personal use".
Re: Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read some days back on HN that even Yandex is better than Google nowadays. And I apologoze for shilling a Russian company, but it is true! For some queries, Yandex is better than Google. I have replaced Google completely with DDG for most searches, ChatGPT for some things, GitHub Copilot for mundane code questions, phind or code.you.com for things requiring more search, and Kagi for things requiring much more searc…
Google's been losing in blind comparisons for over a decade (experiments: - Both have google branding -> competitor wins - Neither has google branding -> competitor wins - One (chosen randomly) has google branding -> google branding wins Yahoo search consistently beat them for a few years before Microsoft bought it and turned it into Bing. It doesn't surprise me at all that Yandex is also producing better results.
I participated in this kind of experiment in 2007 comparing Google to Bing, and ho boy, the Bing results were abysmal.
(Then again Google results today are so abysmal that it wouldn’t surprise me if Bing is now dramatically better.)