Pseudo-monopolies are great at extinguishing imagination like that, and tbh Google search (as I understand its basic setup) was only as good as it was thanks to timing and few really good competitors.
Pseudo-monopolies are great at extinguishing imagination like that, and tbh Google search (as I understand its basic setup) was only as good as it was thanks to timing and few really good competitors.
I was informed about Kagi through one of the posts here and tried it out. It's quite amazing how much better it is compared to even DDG. I didn't mind DDG but it felt "old" but Kagi seems to prioritize user experience over everything else. It may not be free, but it's worth the cost for me.
What's the cost? What makes it better? Is it like Google used to be?
They have a few plans, but the cheapest is $5/mo. If you go past the allotted searches it's pay per search after that (at a very tiny cost).
I switched to DDG when Google started adding cards at the bottom of the first page and made search results utterly useless for me. DDG wasn't bad but it still felt like something was missing or some results were flooded by a specific site. Kagi went the extra step to group results from a site sorta like how Google has.
Ultimately it's the benefits of old Google but some nice refinements and QoL improvements. Because it's paid for, they don't need to sell your data or shove paid for results down your throat.
Thank you!
I'll tack on to what the other commenter said:
It's on the very short list of subscriptions I pay for right now despite having a very limited budget at the moment.
I think based on your response I'm going to jump in. What other subscriptions you think are worth it?
Not the OP but currently have:
You obviously have good taste 👌😁 (no /s)
Thanks! Also trying out these just to evaluate this past week, lol.
Sorry, I forgot to check for replies til now. I’m using almost the exact set of services the other commenter is, minus mullvad (proton is fine for me), backblaze (I have a homelab with a lot of redundant storage capacity and have enough important stuff backed up to the cloud in other ways I’m fine with having to rebuild the rest if something big happens), and standard notes (but I have been considering switching to it just this week, just haven’t done the research).
I used the trial and then just started paying for it. So far, it is much better results, and I like that they do not track you. Also, their small web lens has been fun to play around with.
Another Kagi fan here. I pay $10 a month.
I'm a reasonably heavy search user, but have never hit the quota.
It's wonderful to have relevant results again.
The one thing it doesn't work for is shopping. From time to time I use Google. I should probably switch that to Bing, as the lesser of two evils.