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Kagi and Wolfram

blog.kagi.com

181–190 of 346 posts

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#181
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are you looking for in a testimonial? Do you want a side-by-side comparison of results or something? My experience has been that Kagi's customizations are the key selling point, allowing you to block and bump domains to meet your needs: * I have Wikipedia pinned, so if there's a Wikipedia article it's always the top result, whereas Google has lately started downweighting Wikipedia much of the time (as a…

If you need specific domains, you can always search within that domain. With Chrome, you can even setup shortcut to search certain places like Wiki. Most features I can do within Google or Chrome, and many things are still better within Google search and sometimes being paired with Chrome browser.

> If you need specific domains, you can always search within that domain. With Chrome, you can even setup shortcut to search certain places like Wiki.

That's not the same thing as a pinned domain, though: just because I want Wikipedia or MDN to always surface if present doesn't mean that I'm not interested in what comes further down the page. Doing a domain filter requires me to do two searches to see the same content I'd get from a single Kagi search.

> Most features I can do within Google or Chrome, and many things are still better within Google search and sometimes being paired with Chrome browser.

If Google is satisfactory for you, that's great! I'm just sharing my own perspective, everyone's search habits are different.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#182

> To ensure result quality, we automatically downrank pages with advertising and tracking, which are often associated with low-quality or machine-generated content. That is one of the most compelling things I've ever heard about a search engine. How well does kagi work for niche "reddit queries" like "best waterproof midi synthesizers reddit"?

Reddit has ads and tracking (so does facebook, twitter, Instagram, etc) not to mention your local paper.

Do they filter out reddit or just small ma and pa sites with adsense?

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#183
post #5

I'm excited for this. I've found Kagi to be very useful having widgets like this, in addition to the search results being good. I still have DDG as my search engine for ephemeral searches[1] on my phone and I'm getting sick of it. I don't know if I'd say the result quality has been getting worse , it's just not good and hasn't been for years. Kagi on the other hand feels like an ideal subscription service. It feels l…

Imo ddg's mission is incompatible with today's web. The mission is simply to serve you regular Google/bing search, but without tracking and they do that well, but it is missing the absolute trash fire that those results are currently (yes, they have moved somewhat from that but clearly they are still heavily reliant on Google ranking). Kagi on the other hand, I spend 5$ a month on search that doesn't track me AND gives me great results. The open-source stuff (think of me when a bang now gives you https directly :D) is just the cherry on top.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#184

> To ensure result quality, we automatically downrank pages with advertising and tracking, which are often associated with low-quality or machine-generated content. That is one of the most compelling things I've ever heard about a search engine. How well does kagi work for niche "reddit queries" like "best waterproof midi synthesizers reddit"?

I never realized before that sentence, but the presence of ads and tracking on a webpage is correlated really well with me never wanting to read its content. I might sign up to Kagi just for that.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#185
I like Kagi, and this integration seems useful, but I'm wary of search engines showing "widgets". That is often a slippery slope that incentivizes them to add more features to keep me on their site, instead of leading me towards what I'm looking for.

A search engine should show web results based on my query. That's it. Some summaries and highlights are useful, but show them in the sidebar, and make them optional.

If I need a calculator, I have plenty to choose from, including the Wolphram Alpha site.

If I need an answer to a question, LLMs do a good job at that.

Please don't make the common mistake of making your search engine "useful". My average session on your site should last seconds, which is the time it takes me to see the results, and click on the most relevant one. If you achieve that, you're doing a great job.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a free trial as well. I didn't even finish half my 100 free search queries before I decided to pay.

In my case 100 was not enough. I almost didn't sign up for Kagi because I hadn't yet felt the value and configuring a browser to use Kagi as the default search engine isn't a zero effort task. It probably took me about 200 to 300 searches before I was firmly decided that paying for Kagi is worth it. If I hadn't been freshly mad about Google's declining search quality, and displeased with DDG for something they had re…

> I almost didn't sign up for Kagi because I hadn't yet felt the value and configuring a browser to use Kagi as the default search engine isn't a zero effort task.

It's fairly easy to set up now.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#187
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how will you live with yourself when every search for library documentation or a programming language doesn't flood the first page with expertsexchange, w3schools, geeksforgeeks, favtutor, freecodecamp, and a pile of other tissue-thin content covered with popups?

You haven't lived until you searched and found something useful on expertsexhange. The euphoria is unparalleled.

I went there, and it looks like it's a pay site. It wants me to sign up for a free trial. Not sure how I'm supposed to search it.

Re: Kagi and Wolfram

#189
post #185

I like Kagi, and this integration seems useful, but I'm wary of search engines showing "widgets". That is often a slippery slope that incentivizes them to add more features to keep me on their site, instead of leading me towards what I'm looking for. A search engine should show web results based on my query. That's it. Some summaries and highlights are useful, but show them in the sidebar, and make them optional. If…

Respectfully, I disagree. If I can get the answer without having to click through to another website, I'm a happy camper.
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