Can someone help me a little? I tried Kagi and when my 100 searches ran out I stopped using it. I really didn't like the feeling that I needed to meter my searches, it added a barrier to every search I did (should I use Kagi for this or should I just use Google?). It sounds stupid but literally every search I did I had a pang of worry that I was "wasting" a search.
I also didn't experience a huge increase in search quality that I noticed. I didn't really get into the Lenses stuff even though it seemed cool because I just don't think about things like that when I'm searching. I guess 25 years of googling has conditioned my way of thinking about search.
Kagi feels like something I should really like and I'd be fine with paying for it but I guess I need some more "tips" about how to get the most out of it and/or how to change my way of thinking about this.
I've been using it since the beta, and am still paying for it. I shared your concerns at first, but in practice I've never run into the limit. In fact, checking my history, I've never actually gotten close to the limit. I pay $10/mo for 1500 searches, and most months I do less than 500 searches.
I don't think the search quality is anything special. I have never figured out how to use Lenses, and I don't even care to try them again. I like it for privacy, and I like that you can give weight to different websites, and even block ones you don't want to see again. I know there are Google plugins for blocking sources as well.
I don't have any tips. I think Kagi is about as good as DuckDuckGo, and the advantage it has is that it costs money. I'm at the point where I don't even trust a nominally privacy-focused search engine like DDG not to drift into the unethical. For some reason—maybe naivety—I think a company that takes money in exchange guaranteeing my privacy is theoretically more reliable, if only because it would be too audacious to outright lie about that.
They can claim what they want; the fact remains that I have to trust them. If I use Brave or DDG or even Google, I can do things to obfuscate my identity from them. Kagi is the only search engine that requires users to authenticate, and ties that authentication to a method of payment that can be trivially tied to the user's identity. As far as the user is able to verify, that makes them the least private search engine.
Even if they're telling the truth, if they receive a national security warrant, they'll start collecting that information secretly. Hence my interest in a warrant canary.
That is fair. Few things we are doing that I'd like to point out:
- Users can register with any email. We really do not verify or need this apart from having a way to have an account, which we need to authorize payments
- Some users suggested using crypto to obfuscate identity but this is not as straightforward and does not work as good with subscriptions
I initially worried about surpassing my quota at first, but I've never come close to it (I'm on the grandfathered $10/1500 plan).
For me, I notice better search results than Google (not night and day, but noticeable). The ability to block/promote/demote certain sites is fantastic, and I like the URL rules you can create. For instance, I've set Reddit links to open in old.reddit.com, and I've set Youtube links to redirect to an Invidious instance.
It's got some other nice things—I like the universal summarizer a lot, and the search result summarizer has come in handy many times. But mostly, I just like using something that isn't Google without feeling like I'm compromising (which I did feel with both DDG and Brave).
It’s the personalisation element combined with slightly better results that makes it so much better. Plus, I don’t have to block any ads or tracking. Google without an adblocker has become harder and harder to navigate.
On the other end, I’m seeing Google results get really really bad. Mostly just missing results. When I search the same term on bing there are pages and pages of results. I’ve no idea what’s going on at Google. I don’t use it logged in and don’t know if that affects the results.
I felt the same way about query metering and ended up cancelling my Kagi subscription once they raised their prices. I still occasionally check their Discord server for updates and it sounds like they're trying to bring the cost of unlimited search back down to around $15.
Regarding search quality, I don't think it's a revolutionary improvement over Google, but for me it's been noticeable during the time I used it, where as Neeva and Brave have been very noticeable downgrades. I think Kagi shines once you lean into the tools they provide and start upranking and downranking different domains.
Keep in mind it's been a couple of months since I last used it and they've added the search result summarizer and some other AI tools since then that might help tip the balance their way.
$15/unlimited would be acceptable to me, $25 just seems way too high. I never played much with the summarizer since it was metered as well and I get squirrely about using up limited things (see also: my inventory at the end of every RPG, so many potions that "I might need later").
The ranking and lenses seemed very cool to me but I burned through my free tier before I could really use them. Maybe I'll try again at the $10/mo price.
I'm completely the same as you so I did the following: I took the $10 plan and watched my usage for a week. I seem to hover roughly at about 30-40 searches per day on average so I upgraded to the Family plan. Yes, I know, it sounds weird but now I've got 1400 searches and just didn't invite anyone. And I don't have to worry about if it's going to be enough because my own data says that it's going to easily be enough.
Lenses are actually why I subscribed mostly. I search for organic data often while trying to find help for a product or the opinions on a service or something like that. Regular search is ok, changing to the Forum Lense is mind blowing because I only get discussions from real people.
There is no problem, except in your imagination. Each additional search costs a couple of cents, why would you worry about such a small amount? When you're driving a car you're using cents of fuel every minute, do you worry about that when you're driving, counting the cents?
You've literally managed to find the most insignificant thing to worry about in existence.
But if quality is not impressive to you there's no reason to use the service.
Wow, not really sure where the hostility is coming from. I'm literally asking for suggestion/motivations/reasons to pay because I feel like it is something I want but I need help getting over the hump of paying for search. I also outlined that I didn't experience an increase in quality and posited that I might be using it wrong or not taking full advantage.
> You've literally managed to find the most insignificant thing to worry about in existence.
It's clearly not "insignificant" since others here have voiced the same concern or annoyance. I think we have enough research/studies to show that metering/limiting has an effect on how people use something even if the overage fee is low.
I used the trial and I wasn't sold on it, I was asking for people to tell me how they get value out of it, you're doing literally the opposite and being a jerk about it. If anything your comment makes me want to just forget about Kagi.
I really didn't intend to be hostile in any way, and I apologize if that's how my comment looked.
We as humans tend to trick our own minds into worrying about insignificant things and sometimes need somebody to help us snap out of it. I was trying to help you with that, but instead you think I came across as a jerk. It's not worth your time to worry about a couple of cents for a search. I know many people have the same concern and worry as you, it is still not rational.
> I used the trial and I wasn't sold on it
Then there is no reason for you to use it - even if it was free. The only reason to use paid search is to get better quality results. There is no special maneuver to use with Kagi, it's just typing the query into the box like on Google.
I also didn't experience a huge increase in search quality that I noticed. I didn't really get into the Lenses stuff even though it seemed cool because I just don't think about things like that when I'm searching. I guess 25 years of googling has conditioned my way of thinking about search.
Kagi feels like something I should really like and I'd be fine with paying for it but I guess I need some more "tips" about how to get the most out of it and/or how to change my way of thinking about this.