• seirim@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Anyone else using Kagi.com for search? I’m using it as a paid user and it’s fantastic, no ads and no tracking and results are great. I use ChatGPT for “ideas” and Kagi for specifics.

    • mle@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      Yes, me too. I’ve been looking for google alternatives for a while, because of privacy reasons, but also because the quality of the search results has gone down on google for the last few years, in my opinion. For troubleshooting searches I feel like google always sends me to useles “have you tried sfc /scannow” forum posts, instead of recources that would actually help find the root cause.

      I found that DDG helped with the privacy issue, but the results were even worse. So I’ve used startpage.com for a while, and then stumbled across kagi.com, which I really like so far.

      I’ve tried Bing GPT a few times, purely because I’m interested in the technology. But usually when I have questions that I couldn’t solve through kagi/google myself, BingGPT was completely useless, either not understanding the question or giving complete hallucinations as answers, that were not even present int the sources it cited.

    • limeaide@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      How come you feel the need to pay for your search engine? What type of searches do you do?

      • Wojwo@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        If a service is provided “free” you’re paying for it in another way. Usually ads, but with data collection and aggregation becoming so pervasive, you’re now paying with you’re privacy. Kagi, is just more honest of a transaction.

      • seirim@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        I don’t do anything particularly interesting, it’s just while I’m working I don’t want to get slowed down scrolling through sponsored listings and crap to get to what I need. Plus, I’d rather just pay for something than “be the product” with my data. I don’t do anything weird but more privacy is better.

      • mle@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        For me it comes down to 3 things:

        • I like the idea, that if kagi makes decisions that are unpopular with the majority of users, they will lose income as a direct consequence of that. So their business decisisons are driven by their users interests and needs, not by what advertisers want (in googles example)

        • I like the basic idea of what the kagi team wants to achieve and I want to see the end result of that. But in order to be able to compete in a market dominated by tech giants like google and Microsoft I’m willing to contribute financially.

        • I like my web browsing experience ad free. I know (and use) ad blockers, but I also recognise that, for any service, money has to come from somewhere. And if that service provides me with actual benefits, and I’m happy with it overall, I’m fine with paying a fee instead of seeing ads.

      • 0xc0ba17@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        Less Google = better. The results are also better, and looking for stuff is a good part of my programming job.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      I recently switched over since neeva shut down (though I’ve had a free account for a while). It’s amazing how good it is sometimes.