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How I Use Kagi

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Re: How I Use Kagi

#111

Post by testfrequency »

bbor wrote: post #96
testfrequency wrote: post #40

Can someone who uses both Kagi and Perplexity Pro tell me how they compare or decide which to use? I committed to Perplexity so I can have access to most models I care about easily, deep research, and better online search. I’m happy with Perplexity, but I’ve been Kagi curious for years and now I’m even less sure how I’d approach using it.

As far as I use it, it's much less AI-forward, providing more of a straightforward search experience. They are adding AI tools, but it's definitely an addition rather than the core of the UX. I happen to prefer that and just rely on Claude to run its own searches via API, but I haven't used Perplexity so can't compare them directly. Hope that's helpful!

Thanks. If I’m understanding you here, you use both Kagi and Calude for general search?

Assuming you default with Kagi, but switch to Claude (API? Raycast?) for search if you don’t like the results you get?

Perplexity I’ve found incredibly powerful for search as it’s fast, and I love being able to toggle “Social” as a source quickly before sending an inquiry off - in case I want opinions vs sources.

That said, I have found it on occasion being lackluster a handful of times on the first go, so I have to manually switch the model from the default “Best” mode (which selects the best model for the task) - to specifically Gemini, o3 etc. to get a better result.

Re: How I Use Kagi

#112

Post by 7373737373 »

freediver wrote: post #85
jwr wrote: post #12

Unfortunately, Kagi works with Russian companies and pays them money, which in my book is a no-no. I do not want any of my money to contribute to the Russian economy in any way, because I know what is happening to people in Ukraine. (I was a Kagi subscriber, no more, because of this)

Kagi founder here. I notice you bring this up consistently in Kagi discussions. A search engine's job is to deliver the best possible results. We evaluate API sources on search quality, not geopolitics. Yandex represents 2% of our costs but contributes meaningfully to search quality - removing it would harm all users while having minimal economic impact. We've used their API since 2019 and evaluate all sources purely…

If you can't judge that funding war criminals is a wrong action, you should reconsider your ability to do so morally

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, startup founders aren't exactly known for putting anything else above money and their ideas, particularly actual human well-being.

Consider that you, too, will have to live in the world that you help create, including the consequences of "a mere 2%"

Re: How I Use Kagi

#113

Post by margalabargala »

skrtskrt wrote: post #65
tarkin2 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is a dictatorship at war with Ukraine and the West by their own statements and actions. The idea they are leveraging tech companies for this purpose is ludicrous.

Is Yandex == Russia? Is West == unquestionably good? Do you have the same stance on Israel?

Yandex is the Russian government, yes. It didn't used to be but it is now.

https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/zois-spotlight/th...

Re: How I Use Kagi

#114

Post by barbazoo »

metasaval wrote: post #83
skrtskrt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The increased fuzzy interpretation is Google's greatest downfall. It takes away any ability to use it as a power user or for super-specific stuff. No Google, you don't know better than me. I need something really specific and you're "smoothing" the results to what some average random searcher might want!! I am the point in my software engineering career where I simply don't need those dumbed down results. I need some…

I'm no Google apologist (I use ecosia personally), but did you try using searching in quotes? That should force the search to only find specifically your query directly as spelled. Just curious if you did try it and there was still that "fuzziness."

"Around" "every" "word" "I" "know" "should" "be" "contained" "in" "the" "result"? :)

Re: How I Use Kagi

#115

Post by gkoz »

freediver wrote: post #85
jwr wrote: post #12

Unfortunately, Kagi works with Russian companies and pays them money, which in my book is a no-no. I do not want any of my money to contribute to the Russian economy in any way, because I know what is happening to people in Ukraine. (I was a Kagi subscriber, no more, because of this)

Kagi founder here. I notice you bring this up consistently in Kagi discussions. A search engine's job is to deliver the best possible results. We evaluate API sources on search quality, not geopolitics. Yandex represents 2% of our costs but contributes meaningfully to search quality - removing it would harm all users while having minimal economic impact. We've used their API since 2019 and evaluate all sources purely…

A leader who on principle legitimizes and pays companies that are literal tools of oppression will inevitably burn his customers. And isn't it funny how as a paying customer one still has as much say in this as with Google?

Re: How I Use Kagi

#116

Post by lukan »

margalabargala wrote: post #109
lukan wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't sanction the country directly, but any company that may or may not support the war in Ukraine. To me that seems incredibly unfair to normal russian people(who still exists) while still buying oil from saudi arabia for example. Ask Kashoggi about it. Or any of those other poor bastards that got rid of without anyone caring about them. In general, collective punishment is maybe not the way to improve the…

Well, here we're discussing Yandex, there's no "may or may not" about that one: https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/zois-spotlight/th... > To me that seems incredibly unfair to normal russian people Life's not fair. Among the unfairness experienced by a median Russian citizen, a random American's disinterest in supporting Yandex is probably low on their list. > In general, collective punishment is maybe not th…

Ok, I did not know those specific details, thanks for providing. I was more talking general. Different story here it seems, but boycotting kagi because of it still sounds extreme to me.

Re: How I Use Kagi

#117

Post by andoando »

margalabargala wrote: post #78
unclad5968 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you personally sanction all countries that commit atrocities or is it specific to Russia? I don't care what you do or don't support with your money, but I'm genuinely curious about the mindset.

It is not possible for any one person to maintain 100% awareness of the entire planet, nor is it feasible for most people to simply live in the woods as a hunter-gatherer and take nothing from others who might do wrong elsewhere. Once we accept that each of us is a human rather than a morally perfect literal supernatural angel, each of us must decide: If we cannot sanction all wrongdoers, does that mean we sanction n…

So go head and sanction the US because as far as I am aware its still the largest imperial power in the world

Re: How I Use Kagi

#118

Post by drewbitt »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #67
jorvi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"people", as in a perpetually offended tiny minority that want the entire world to bend to their comfort bubble. I'm fairly certain you're also one of the users that incessantly badgered them about excluding Brave's index, trying to portray it like the majority of Kagi users wanted that. Vlad's stance is very refreshing in the current politically correct world: if including an index makes for better search results (=…

'Offended' is a weird word to describe people choosing to boycott evil.

Yandex is evil?

Re: How I Use Kagi

#119

Post by pphysch »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #67
jorvi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"people", as in a perpetually offended tiny minority that want the entire world to bend to their comfort bubble. I'm fairly certain you're also one of the users that incessantly badgered them about excluding Brave's index, trying to portray it like the majority of Kagi users wanted that. Vlad's stance is very refreshing in the current politically correct world: if including an index makes for better search results (=…

'Offended' is a weird word to describe people choosing to boycott evil.

Boycott particular examples of evil that they disagree with politically.

Re: How I Use Kagi

#120

Post by drannex »

jorvi wrote: post #55
J_McQuade wrote: post #4

I always feel really grotty about evangelising for products, but I switched to Kagi about six months ago and it really is a better experience. In almost all cases, the search results are as good as or better than Google, and I don't have to scroll through an increasing number of misleading ads to see them. I'm a happy customer. When I first switched, I would often click the button to run the search on google for quer…

> I always feel really grotty about evangelising for products You shouldn't. Word-of-mouth should be the primary way people discover products. In ye olden days, a region's best bakery or blacksmith didn't become well-known because they put up signposts everywhere, but because the quality of their craft made their name known far and wide. I feel very comfortable recommending products that are actually good, ran by a U…

> In ye olden days, a region's best bakery or blacksmith didn't become well-known because they put up signposts everywhere, but because the quality of their craft made their name known far and wide.

To be fair, advertising has always been a major thing, for example, The romans had a tonne of visual advertising[1]

[1}; https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/advertising-in-ancient...

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