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Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

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Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#431

Post by Groxx »

justinclift wrote: post #95
d12bb wrote: post #7

I switched to Kagi little over a year ago and couldn’t recommend it enough. The search results are actually what I’m searching for, there is AI for the occasions I want it (and only then), and it comes with nice extras like search personalization and a great translation app. Tried to live without it when my first year of subscription ran out, but I didn’t last long…

The Kagi stats graphs (showing membership growth) since May 20th when Google announced their replacment of Google Search speaks for itself: https://kagi.com/stats Slow gradual growth before, large increase in the daily growth rate since. It'll be interesting keeping an eye on how that growth rate goes over time. :)

Growth is nearly linear for the past 3 years.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#432

Post by kimos »

prism56 wrote: post #388
kimos wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I have a family account. I absolutely love it and have used it for a while. I’m a programmer and use it more for that kind of thing. She, however, does the purchasing and shopping and product hunting for our house. She keeps trying to use it but ends up with Google tabs open anyway. As as much as I’m a big Kagi fan, YMMV depending on your usage patterns.

I enjoy my Kagi usage but there are still a few things I use the !g or !gm bangs for. Shopping and finding locations is definitely one.

Yes, I am also hopelessly tied to Google Maps. Which I think is relatively distinct from web search, IMO.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#433

Post by freehorse »

nosioptar wrote: post #408
JSR_FDED wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

I don't walk around recording every conversation I have. I'd also argue that calling a tech CEO a liar is far from extraordinary. It'd be extraordinary if I accused him of honesty.

Only problem is that the original quote you commented on was not kagi lying, as they actually say the same here

https://blog.kagi.com/waiting-dawn-search

You said that you were not surprised that kagi was lying, only that they were not in this occasion. When you accuse somebody of lying it makes sense to provide at least some evidence of that.

At the very least, they are very clear about which indexes they use and how.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#435

Post by Rekindle8090 »

hgs3 wrote: post #286
nekzn wrote: post #18

I must be the only person in this website who is happy with the AI Overview feature. It messes up sometimes (very rarely) but so do websites. And between ads, cookie popups, newsletter popups, notification permission popups, websites with a high Time to First Byte, and all the useless filler around the content, websites are a nightmare to browse. I would say that for almost all of my searches the AI Overview feature…

I blocked AI overview because it starves websites of their own traffic and revenue. Websites accepted Google scraping their content because it gave them a prominent blue link plus excerpt to drive traffic. Now everyone’s content is blended together and maybe, if they’re lucky, their site is chosen amongst the blend to get a tiny citation link.

[dead]

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#436

Post by princevegeta89 »

pants2 wrote: post #228
d12bb wrote: post #7

I switched to Kagi little over a year ago and couldn’t recommend it enough. The search results are actually what I’m searching for, there is AI for the occasions I want it (and only then), and it comes with nice extras like search personalization and a great translation app. Tried to live without it when my first year of subscription ran out, but I didn’t last long…

I have been a Kagi subscriber for years but I do increasingly find myself using Google. It's not good at local searches or news searches. It's also not good at showing quick context like Google's knowledge graph, especially with images. Finally it's considerably slower. Kagi is better for research and knowledge work, Google is still better for quick lookups.

I started hating Google Search because of its relentless AI dumps on the results page, but I have also stopped using it at all, more or less.

I got the Google AI Pro plan, which gives Gemini access by default with generous limits, and also includes free credits, code assist in VS Code and other editors, and also to Gemini CLI. And I'm just simply using that for all of my needs. It seems to work quite well so far. I see how Google Search is not relevant for me anymore.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#437

Post by Groxx »

jryan49 wrote: post #284
stingraycharles wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For simple queries it’s fine. The main value it adds is that it’s above the ad spam.

But it was trained on ad spam wasn't it?

And consistently quotes information from them, yes. They quite like showing reddit and news icons while searching, but expand the references and it paints a rather different picture, especially for common searches which are flooded with junk. Niche stuff seems more likely to reference decent sites, but have massively worse hallucinations.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#438

Post by admash »

rglullis wrote: post #401
mancerayder wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really curious perspective. There are a few different angles of attack here, but let's start with this: it WAS free because people were making free content. Before the Internet we were hosting free BBSes (look those up), we then hosted websites which we made ourselves when the Internet was commercialized, and we paid for services like games where it made sense. You'd buy software you'd own forever (like Phot…

BBS were only amateur efforts. Linux would not go anywhere if it was not for IBM famously investing 1 billion in 2000. You can get some development and innovations built purely on "free", but without actual professionals who can make a living by developing these systems, they never take off to reach the masses. The best example is social media and the Fediverse.

That’s disingenous. Microsoft themselves considered Linux a serious threat as early as 1998, as described in their own confidential memoranda. (AKA the Halloween Documents released by ESR.)

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#439

Post by freehorse »

trollbridge wrote: post #199
BirAdam wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, Apple does allow DDG, Ecosia, and Bing. They just don’t allow Brave or Kagi.

Easily fixed by installing Brave Browser.

Or a bunch of other browsers. Nothing special about brave.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#440

Post by nunez »

Kagi is amazing; I've been using it every day for the last three years and it's been well worth the price. I especially love that they don't shove AI in your face despite having very good AI search available (with locally hosted models!)

I'm afraid of them selling out at this point. If they go, I honestly don't know who will go in their place.

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