730
DuckDuckGo poll says 90% don't want AI in search (www.pcworld.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/goodnewseveryone@piefed.social
59 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 98 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

It should never be by default. I like the way Kagi handles it, you have to invoke it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 33 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    I switched to Kagi too. Definitely worth $10 to be able to search with some sanity again.

    Here's hoping it lasts for a year or two before falling to enshitification or google.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Does Kagi have its own Index? Or is it just masking Google/Bing like DDG or Startpage?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 44 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    They use a mixed index with a lot of different sources. (mentioned here)

    They have direct licensing deals with Mojeek, Brave, Yandex, Wikipedia, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Apple, and Wolphram Alpha, which they claim is under "FRAND" ("Fair, Reasonable, And Non-Discriminatory") terms, with them retaining the ability to "reorder and blend results." (which is kinda their whole thing)

    As for Google and Bing, they have to use third parties to get their search data, since:

    Bing: Their terms didn’t work for us from the start. Microsoft’s terms prohibited reordering results or merging them with other sources - restrictions incompatible with Kagi’s approach. In February 2023, they announced price increases of up to 10x on some API tiers. Then in May 2025, they retired the Bing Search APIs entirely, effective August 2025, directing customers toward AI-focused alternatives like Azure AI Agents.

    Google: Google does not offer a public search API. The only available path is an ad-syndication bundle with no changes to result presentation - the model Startpage uses. Ad syndication is a non-starter for Kagi’s ad-free subscription model.

    They also run their own "Small Web Index", which prioritizes smaller sites, independently operated personal blogs, comic sites, small YT channels, things like that.

    You can see some of that index on its own here. I don't often see it pop up for a lot of my searches, but I'd say maybe 1 in 20 to 1 in 50 of my searches have something that is clearly ranked from there higher in my search results, that I actually end up clicking on, that is almost always more reliable than all the other sources on the topic. It's usually most prevalent for programming/system setup related terms since there's a lot of programmers and sysadmins with their own personal blogs.

    I've found they rank fediverse sites higher than Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia do, though I don't know if that's just their general search ranking or if that's part of the smallweb index. Again, usually much more relevant and useful than other sites or even Reddit when they do appear.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I wish they'd add a non-subscription-based plan. I'd like to just buy a pack of searches and not have to worry about them expiring.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    I mean, they could, but the searches would be more expensive because you'll actually use them all, so you wouldn't save any money unless you're using search like five times a month.

    That also leads to you using other search engines half the time because you don't want to waste one of your Kagi searches.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    so you wouldn’t save any money unless you’re using search like five times a month.

    I'd still take the non-subscription route even if it was slightly more expensive. But unless they charge like $60 for 300 non-expiring searches, I'd probably still be saving money.

    That also leads to you using other search engines half the time because you don’t want to waste one of your Kagi searches.

    More like 90% of the time because usually I'm just being lazy about finding the url for some specific website I'm trying to go to. If I bought like 1000 searches at a time though, I doubt I'd feel so stingy with them.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent