JumpCrisscross
13 hours ago
Every time I hear people complain about this, I recommend Kagi [1]. (I use their Quick Answer feature almost by default.)
If friends complain about that and how growth-first culture ruins good products, I buy them their first month--Kagi seems to epitomise finding a niche and serving it excellently. If you're technologically-savvy, don't like your time wasted and are willing (and able) to pay for search, you should try it out. (It's not surprising that they're a bit of a meme here on HN.)
[1] https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/why-pay-for-search.html
akkartik
13 hours ago
I used it for a while but did not stick. Here's my review: https://lethallava.land/notes/9xruz2xjci
ashton314
13 hours ago
I just started paying for the $10 = unlimited searches plan. 300/mo is just not enough for me as a researcher. Quality has been far better than Google or DDG IME.
lukeify
13 hours ago
Kagi offer unlimited searches now for $10/month. Arguably the best value for money plan and it stops you worrying about how many searches you have left.
caseyy
6 hours ago
I think they need to bring it down to $0.99/mo before anyone but early adopters will consider it. Kagi must compete with a search engine that most people believe has no cost.
And many people, as evidenced by Google’s profitable enshittification, do trust the Google results. To them, if they got scammed by an SEO-hacking site, or a site paying Google for search result placements, it’s just how things are on the internet. They would not understand the complicity of their search engine.
All together, that’s the magical thinking Kagi will have to compete against. Because early adopters come and go. They will need to transition to mass market adoption, at least at some single-digit percent of the market share.
JumpCrisscross
5 hours ago
> Kagi must compete with a search engine that most people believe has no cost
Disagree. There is plenty of money to be made in being the premium search engine to the rich and educated. To the degree they might solidify that font, it’s in pursuing academia.
Fire-Dragon-DoL
12 hours ago
I didn't either, may I recommend retrying? There has been enormous improvement, so I did stick the second time
ktosobcy
13 hours ago
I wanted to try it ages ago but I bumped off from "can't register now". I tried it now and while it looks nice (a bit like google 15 years ago) I'm not sure I'm convinced: 1) lowest tier is only 300 searches per month (not sure how many I do but feels low) 1b) <rant> why-the-f* they show "+ tax" argh... 2) I use DDG and I like it and it just works for me and... it doesn't require account (and attached payment method!) so less tracking...
Spivak
13 hours ago
They've earned it tbh, I haven't reached for Google in about 2 years since paying for Kagi. I used to try !g when I didn't get great results but that habit got broke when Google never did any better.
Edit: Reading the sibling comments I pay for the $10/mo unlimited and use it liberally for about 2k searches a month.
eastbound
13 hours ago
I have it by default on my phone. But when I want to find something, I always have to revert to Google:
- Maybe the localization of search results doesn’t work well in Europe,
- Sometimes it’s the literal name of the website and Google is better at that.
drewbitt
9 hours ago
Nah Kagi does have a localization problem in general. It's improved but not there yet.
I'm a Kagi user of 2 years and it's actually not the default on my phone. If I'm on my phone, I'm likely using it to search local businesses and nothing can compete with Google's business + review data.
JumpCrisscross
9 hours ago
> nothing can compete with Google's business + review data
I've been using Kagi quite successfully to recommend restaurants in an area. (Quick Answer.) Sometimes it's just summarising a Tripadvisor. But often it's pulling in recommendations from Reddit and personal blogs, which greatly improves the reliability.
Can definitely see them having issues in Europe, though, particularly when it comes to crossing languages.