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Kagi Assistant

blog.kagi.com

231–240 of 247 posts

Re: Kagi Assistant

#231

I've been using Kagi for a while and I like it more that Google but I can't quite see myself paying for Kagi Assistant. I can't see myself paying for almost any pass-through AI subscriptions, I'd rather just pay for the core AI tool (ChatGPT/Claude). This field is moving very quickly and since there will always be a lag in getting new features/models into the "wrappers" I'd rather get it from the source. One random t…

You could just pin those domains as you come across them. I’ve definitely done that with one or two things that I hit this issue with.

Funny you mention Datadog, I specifically struggle to keep their blog/promotion/etc official results out of the way when digging around for documentation and troubleshooting. If I’m trying to find a solution to something weird with Datadog I’m often facing the opposite of your problem and wish Datadog’s site would get out of the way.

Re: Kagi Assistant

#232
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah they’d thrown that baby out with the bathwater because Google+ had wanted to use it.

"Throwing the baby out with the bathwater" means trying too hard to do something good but accidently overdoing it!? Just to make sure we're not accidentally giving Google a break, Google+ ended in 2019, if they cared for search at all they would have brought back this feature.

Yeah I used the wrong phrase definitely. I was thinking of screwing it up. :)

Re: Kagi Assistant

#233

Is there some reason Brave Search isn't more popular on this site? It already has an incredibly helpful assistant built into the search and it's free. I don't even use Brave Browser (long live Firefox!) but I feel like people are sleeping on theur search.

Brave is generally disliked here because of the affiliation with cryptocurrency.

Re: Kagi Assistant

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you seriously think you should get serious results in one second? I would understand the complaints about slowness if searches were taking like ten seconds, but a few seconds, I really must be getting old. I still remember when google was giving relevant results in page 2. Now it's pretty much useless for me, and the fast search makes me think they are throwing away tons of potentially good stuff just to make…

Kagi is pretty much useless past the first 3 results.

That's not my experience, but I guess that depends on the use case and how specific things you are searching. However, in general I much prefer good search results to saving a few seconds and getting delivered absolute rubbish like google does these days, that was the main point of my post. Like I said I still remember when just plain google search without any thought on how to word the search was phenomenal.

Google fully pivoted from prestigious tech-company to lame ad-company and that's a shame really. Business as usual.

Re: Kagi Assistant

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you publish to make information known, then your incentive is that it helps spread that information to people who may not otherwise visit your site. If you are trying to make money off of search engine traffic then you might not like this much at all. I think most people would rather not be pointed to those sites in the first place, so it’s a win-win if they block crawlers.

This is a bad take. I don't make money off search engine traffic (beyond the occasional donated dollar), and yet I would quite rather[0] that AI doesn't visit my site. Imagine for a second a world where instead of publishing directly to your own website (home), you publish into the LLM's knowledge base. Nobody comes to you for information, they come to the LLM. Nobody cares about you, or the work you put in. Your lab…

Okay, I’ve imagined the world you described. I don’t care for it. I also don’t think that’s a likely outcome of LLMs. Why would somebody continue “toiling away to provide you with instant gratification” if there’s nothing in it for them?

Re: Kagi Assistant

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but they aren't _that_ much better and I'd rather do a little more digging than support Google. I still find what I need and make good money. I can also rationalize it that I'm not always just taking the first result and actually reading multiple solutions to my problem but yanno, YMMV there.

My rule of thumb that I’ve found is that for the most part Kagi is on par with Google for anything non location-aware. Oftentimes it’s noticeably better actually since there’s less pumping of useless results to the top. For anything location-aware, however, it ranges from significantly worse to steaming hot pile of garbage depending on the search. That’s what eventually made me cancel. Loved it for what it does give…

I am wondering if you reported any of these issues/example queries to Kagi/kagifeedback.org?

Re: Kagi Assistant

#238
No markdown blocks for code makes assistants really tough to use. It also seems to end up recommending that you search the exact same thing you ask it. For example, if I ask "name 5 websites similar to hackernews", it'll end up spitting out a link to a kagi search with "websites similar to hackernews".

I might end up disabling web search until they've tweaked it a little more. I really like kagi search so I feel pretty confident that they'll get it, but I don't think it's ready to replace the brand-name chatbots.

Re: Kagi Assistant

#239
post #238

No markdown blocks for code makes assistants really tough to use. It also seems to end up recommending that you search the exact same thing you ask it. For example, if I ask "name 5 websites similar to hackernews", it'll end up spitting out a link to a kagi search with "websites similar to hackernews". I might end up disabling web search until they've tweaked it a little more. I really like kagi search so I feel pret…

Hi Yunwal, I work at Kagi.

> No markdown blocks for code makes assistants really tough to use.

Could you clarify if you are referring to the markdown from your prompt not rendering? Or the response from the model not rendering markdown for code blocks?

The former was an intentional choice for now to simplify release; it is on our roadmap. The latter would be a bug - in which case, you can email the thread URL to zac@kagi.com and I'd be happy to take a closer look.

Re: Kagi Assistant

#240
I've been using (and paying for) Kagi since the beginning.

For the first while, the search results were inarguably better than any alternative. I was thrilled and was recommending Kagi to anyone who'd listen. In the last six months or so, things have gone downhill. More often, my results ignore some of my search terms and I have to try to "trick" Kagi into matching them all. More often, I get only one or two pages of results when other engines give me notably more relevant hits. And more often, my search hangs or fails to return at all.

I don't care if they noodle with AI or make T-shirts as long as the search is great. What I've experienced is the search getting worse while they noodle with AI and make T-shirts, though. The two may be entirely unrelated but from an outside perspective, it feels like their core offering is suffering because of these other-than-search undertakings.

So far, I'm sticking with it, but my enthusiasm has definitely diminished. A couple of my friends have canceled their subscriptions in disappointment and I've started to consider cancelling mine, as well.

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