(Tiny Tips) – Kagi Apps – When you think of searching the internet, you undoubtedly think of Google (unless you’re the only one who first thinks of Bing). This search giant is everywhere because it’s fast, free, and better than most of its competitors. But not everything is great at Google. Although it’s technically free to use, you pay for your privacy.
Google monitors your search history to show you more relevant ads and build a profile about you over time. This means you may be stuck in your own search bubble because Google keeps showing you the types of results you’re more likely to click on. If you’re looking for different perspectives or want to broaden your horizons, chances are you won’t be able to find them easily on Google over time.
Google’s dominance creates another problem: Thousands of websites exist solely to create spammy content targeting Google search keywords. So if you use a lot of search terms, you may find low-quality, possibly AI-generated articles that contain all the right search terms but don’t say anything you don’t already know.
That’s why competitors value your privacy and are able to highlight results that Google doesn’t necessarily show. There are certainly privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo that don’t track you and have ad-supported models that don’t invade your privacy.
However, if you’re completely opposed to the idea of advertising and are willing to pay for a search engine that doesn’t track you, then you might want to take a look at Kagi Search. It comes from the developers of the Orion browser, and it allows you to run Chrome and Firefox extensions. This search engine offers a variety of features and an ad-free experience for a monthly fee.
What makes Kagi different from Google
Kagi offers some interesting features that make it stand out. Being completely free of ads and sponsored search results is a big deal – it ensures your search is absolutely free of unnecessary clutter. If you don’t want to see search results for a specific website, Kagi allows you to block entire domains from the results. This is ideal if you want to hide conspiracy theory websites or those that contain a lot of AI-generated spam. You can add up to 1,000 blocked domains in bulk using one of Kagi’s settings pages. If you don’t like blocking results, you can manually reorder the search results to prioritize unwanted sites.
Kagi’s best feature may be Lenses, which let you search for otherwise inaccessible results from all corners of the web. For example, if you want to see results for small blogs and niche websites, you can enable Small Web Lens in your Kagi settings. This will continue to drive performance higher in these niche markets. You can also create custom lenses to highlight results from your favorite sites so Kagi finds what you’re looking for on high-quality sites you trust.
Search engines also do some other interesting things, such as B. Grouping lists to reduce the space required on the results page. It has a filter that allows you to lower the results for sites with too many ads and trackers. Occasionally, unique, in-depth articles appear under the “Interesting Findings” tab. All these features work well in practice.
Kagi is fast, so you definitely don’t have to wait long for results, and it’s highly customizable. Not only do you have great control over the results you see, but you also have control over how Kagi looks. It also allows keyboard shortcuts and bangs (e.g. !r to search Reddit).
What Kagi will cost you
All these features come at a price. Kagi offers a free tier that allows you to perform up to 100 searches. When you run out of searches, you can pay $5 per month for up to 300 searches, or $10 per month for unlimited searches.
This model also has one big limitation: to use Kagi, you need to create an account. This means that while Kagi is private (it doesn’t even store your search history), it’s not completely anonymous. The company says it only needs the account to track your number of searches and handle billing, otherwise, it has no interest in retaining your data. If you care about privacy and wish to reduce the amount of information you provide to Kagi, you can create an account through an anonymous email service and pay with Bitcoin. The company’s FAQ page is filled with questions about privacy, and you should read them before signing up.
Will anyone actually pay to search?
While these features may be tempting, you have to ask yourself: after decades of free internet search, is there really a market for a paid search product? Kagi’s approach aims to create something that appeals to a small group of people who value high-quality search results above all else – a philosophy reflected in the fact that Kagi often generates relatively few (usually less than 100) results, these results may be more useful than what you’ll find on the fourth page of Google search results. If this product is right for you, $5 a month isn’t bad at all. The free trial is also generous enough to let you make an informed decision – even if you search a lot, it’ll take some time to use up those 100 searches.
How to try Kagi
To give Kagi a fair chance, you can install the Orion browser (which sets Kagi as your default search engine) or add a browser extension that allows you to use it as your primary search engine. Unfortunately, being the default search engine on mobile devices is a bit difficult, which is the biggest obstacle to fully switching to Kagi. However, if you take a few minutes to set the Kagi search page as your default homepage, you’ll probably use it more often.