Pluralistic: Too big to care (04 Apr 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14100831

"No, seriously. All those things Google couldn’t find anymore? Top of the search pile. Queries that generated pages of spam in Google results? Fucking pristine on Kagi – the right answers, over and ov

  • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
    104·
    7 months ago

    I tried Kagi (free 100 query plan) and got about the same results as google/DDG. It’s kind of nice but I couldn’t see subscribing. I hate subscriptions. If they sold access for a flat fee per query (let’s say $5 for 200 queries) I’d buy that, and use a dozen or so queries a month. The rest of the time I’d keep using DDG or occasionally resorting to Google.

    • Kraiden@kbin.run
      63·
      7 months ago

      so I’ve just giving it a quick test vs google with the query “open source chromecast alternative”

      the first result for both is a reddit post about NymphCast

      it’s the rest of the results that are interesting though.

      Google has a ycombinator news article about NymphCast and then decends into the usual “17 best chromecast alternatives in 2024” rubbish

      Kagi on the other hand lists the github for NymphCast, and then goes on to list others… mirrorCast, pyCaster, free Cast, an article on using a raspberry pi as a chromecast alternative.

      obviously this is only anecdotal, and very unscientific, but it’s got me interested for sure! Gonna bookmark it and see how it goes

    • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      15·
      7 months ago

      I love the idea of paying for a high quality service that I use, but Kagi was significantly worse than Google. I searched for local businesses, programming questions, and general knowledge stuff.

      I’ll try it again in a year or two and see if it works for me.

      • scrion@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        7 months ago

        I switched to Kagi about 6 months back. It is overall better, but at least on par with Google, also as far as tech / programming - related questions go. Whenever I do not get a useful result from Kagi, it literally finds nothing - I then try Google for verification, which also lists absolutely no results. That happened approximately 4 times since I switched.

        Kagi is worse than Google for: reviews, memes, porn, as well as “descriptive” searches, i. e. when trying to describe the desired result using natural language, e. g. “video game character that swallows everything” (I made that up just now for Kirby).

        Kagi’s ability to use lenses and assign weights to sites can make a big difference.

        At first, they didn’t have anonymous payments and an unattractive pricing model, but that has been fixed for a while, otherwise I wouldn’t have switched.

        Overall, I am very satisfied and have absolutely zero plans of ever using Google again.

        • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          9·
          7 months ago

          I find Kagi results slightly better but the interface is so much nicer and site ranking is great. Mostly though whenever I try using Google it just feels scummy and more obvious than ever that they are trying to shove ad garbage down my brain. I really hope I never need to go back to that again. Agree that crypto payment option for Kagi is clutch, but wish they made that more front and center. Unless you look for it Kagi wants your name, address, and credit card number and all your searches are linked to that. That’s even scummier than Google.

          • darreninthenet@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            6·
            7 months ago

            They claim that they don’t link/save your search history so although they have your details for payment, technically it’s not linked. If they aren’t lying…

            • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              7 months ago

              I also don’t lie and will send you $10,000USD if you send me your credit card number, cell phone number and social. If I happen to accidentally leak your info a few thousand of my friends I will be sure to give you 10% off of a partially reputable ID protection watchdog service. If you trust random corporations that have almost no enforced security oversight, you really should trust this friendly internet stranger as much if not more.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      7 months ago

      Yup, it’s way too expensive. If they bundled it with another service to provide more value, I might consider it. But from some back-of-the-napkin math, they’re charging way more than their competitors make from ads.

      I’d also be interested in a pay-per-search option. I’d be happy loading up $5 every so often if they other services didn’t find what I’m looking for.

      • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        7 months ago

        Then they wouldn’t have tiered plans. Anyway try a $12/year plan with a few queries per month. $60/y adds up a lot faster.

      • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        7 months ago

        They start at $5/month (https://kagi.com/pricing) and that misses some features. But, I thought they started at $10/month. It may have changed. Anyway, I hate subscriptions and would rather pay by the query. It’s something I’d use once in a while, so I don’t want to keep paying while it idles.