deutrino
deutrino boosted
@offby1 Wow I so very vehemently agree.

I try and tell people what an enormous quality of life boost paying for @kagihq is, and often I get this eyes glazed over look, like they can't CONCEIVE that the web search tool they use is important and a huge determinant pf productivity for many tech folks in 2025.

Because for many of us, a LOT of what we do is system integration. Piecing together existing LEGO blocks in patterns that are very rarely new to the world but may well be new to us.

I just got Ubuntu installed on my desktop, and had the experience of thinking "WOW why are my web search results just TRASH all of a sudden?" and then I realized I hadn't logged into #kagi yet and was getting the GOOG garbage dump instead :)

@offby1 Wow I so very vehemently agree.

I try and tell people what an enormous quality of life boost paying for @kagihq is, and often I get this eyes glazed over look, like they can't CONCEIVE that the web search tool they use is important and a huge determinant pf productivity for many tech folks in 2025.

Because for many of us, a LOT of what we do is system integration. Piecing together existing LEGO blocks in patterns that are very rarely new to the world but may well be new to us.

I just got Ubuntu installed on my desktop, and had the experience of thinking "WOW why are my web search results just TRASH all of a sudden?" and then I realized I hadn't logged into #kagi yet and was getting the GOOG garbage dump instead :)

I did this over a year ago and have never once regretted it: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/enough-is-enough-i-dumped-googles-worsening-search-for-kagi/

Dropping #Google search for #Kagi made me actually efficient using web search again. It's not that I don't use LLM web searches where appropriate but now I have a choice again, and my search provider is paid for by me, not by companies looking for my attention.

Name : Google - URL : 🤬 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : google - Paid service : No
Name : Bing (Microsof) - URL : 🤢 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : bing - Paid service : No
Name : ZoTop (Zaclys) - URL : zotop.zaclys.com - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : google, bing, etc. (configurable) - Paid service : No
Name : Brave Search - URL : search.brave.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Brave Search - Paid service : No
Name : Qwant - URL : qwant.com - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No
Name : Duckduckgo - URL : duckduckgo.com - Ads : Yes (can be disable) - AI : Not by default - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing and others - Paid service : No
Name : Swisscows - URL : swisscows.com - Ads : Yes (not for subscribers) - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : Optional
Name : StartPage - URL : startpage.com - Ads : Yes - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google - Paid service : No
Name : Mojeek - URL : mojeek.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes (specific tab) - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Mojeek - Paid service : No
Name : Ecosia - URL : ecosia.org - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No
Name : Mullvad Leta - URL : leta.mullvad.net - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google, Brave - Paid service : No
Name : Google - URL : 🤬 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : google - Paid service : No Name : Bing (Microsof) - URL : 🤢 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : bing - Paid service : No Name : ZoTop (Zaclys) - URL : zotop.zaclys.com - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : google, bing, etc. (configurable) - Paid service : No Name : Brave Search - URL : search.brave.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Brave Search - Paid service : No Name : Qwant - URL : qwant.com - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No Name : Duckduckgo - URL : duckduckgo.com - Ads : Yes (can be disable) - AI : Not by default - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing and others - Paid service : No Name : Swisscows - URL : swisscows.com - Ads : Yes (not for subscribers) - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : Optional Name : StartPage - URL : startpage.com - Ads : Yes - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google - Paid service : No Name : Mojeek - URL : mojeek.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes (specific tab) - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Mojeek - Paid service : No Name : Ecosia - URL : ecosia.org - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No Name : Mullvad Leta - URL : leta.mullvad.net - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google, Brave - Paid service : No
@pluralistic
Got upset enough that I now run a small instance of #searxng which does a similar thing to #Kagi (searches across multiple services) but without its own index - a metasearch engine essentially.
Strips out ads and AI responses and was moderately useful a little while ago for ascertaining that one service had heavily de-prioritised a blog post - the interface indicates which services provided which results.