Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hear you, but it's also really hard from the service provider's perspective because - for many people at least - the allotment of searches starts to become a hinderance on using it. 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 s…
I get that it’s hard, but figure it out. Amazon doesn’t make me subscribe and I can buy 100 hours and use them over 10 years for all they care. I’ve had monthly bills that are a penny from glacier. I don’t think this pricing is because it’s hard on Kagi. I think it’s a dark pattern that once people subscribe they just autopay forever. My dad subscribed to dial up aol until last year. He hasn’t had a phone line for 15…
If I search five times a month, charge me $0.05 a search. If I search 2000 times, charge me $10. If I search 2001 times, just charge me ten dollars.
Still no need to think about it, no need to lock into a subscription, but you also don’t have to worry about blowing your credit card up if you have a research paper due or something.
Of course, no one does this because you’re right, it’s purely a dark pattern.