I suspect that this is the direct result of AI generated content just overwhelming any real content.

I tried ddg, google, bing, quant, and none of them really help me find information I want these days.

Perplexity seems to work but I don’t like the idea of AI giving me “facts” since they are mostly based on other AI posts

  • Hannes
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    5419 hours ago

    I’m very happy with kagi at the moment. Just crossed one year using it as my main search engine last week and don’t see why I would go back.

    • @[email protected]
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      3518 hours ago

      Same. Using Kagi feels like surfing the old web. The first thing I did was block all Pinterest results. That alone made every search golden. 😂

      • @[email protected]
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        1818 hours ago

        I hate Pinterest lol, best thing about Kagi is being able to block whole sites and it remembers your preferences. I may come back to Kagi but I didn’t feel like funding their AI features development. Now Im using Searx and 4get cause they’re free.

      • @[email protected]
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        1218 hours ago

        You’re not the only one. They have a leaderboard and the top 7 results are various Pinterest domains.

      • @[email protected]
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        1718 hours ago

        It’s a very minor annoyance and well worth it in my opinion.

        I was searching for a book quote for over a year. I tried every search engine, tried changing the terms, checking back several times every few weeks or so, but couldn’t find anything even close. I tried kagi and it was literally the very first result on my very first search.

        I haven’t looked back and have never had an issue finding what I’m searching for since.

      • @[email protected]
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        1018 hours ago

        You pay instead of seeing ads, so they need the account. Remembers you, though, so you just login once. Plus they have a solution for incognito/private windows too.

        I really like it, has some cool features.

      • Hannes
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        618 hours ago

        You can create a search-link that includes your token so you can also use it in incognito or if you are logged out for some reason.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]
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        218 hours ago

        Signing up and logging in isn’t a problem imo. I wouldn’t even mind if I had to pay for searches, but I’m not going to make it a subscription service. Unless they add an option to do something like buy 1000 searches that never expire, its not something I’d considered. I do think they beat out competitors like google with their results pretty consistently though based on the trial.

        • @[email protected]
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          1417 hours ago

          I’m not gonna subscription my heated car seats but search is a service that costs an ongoing amount to provide. The subscription isn’t significant, it’s $5 a month for 300 searches (or $10 for unlimited).

          I know we’ve been conditioned to expect search for free, but if we want to get away from the “the user is the product” model then I think it’s a good thing to have a subscription to a service that has ongoing costs to provide.

            • @[email protected]
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              317 hours ago

              Ah right, I get you. I wonder if they have considered this. Pretty sure their free/demo tier is 100 searches not confined to a time period so presumably the platform could handle that model.

    • capital
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      11 hours ago

      My blocks

      Edit: hm. I seem to have replied to the wrong comment.

    • @[email protected]
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      416 hours ago

      I don’t remember any specifics, but I think I heard there were some privacy concerns?

      Then again, there seem to be privacy concerns about pretty much anything so might not be that bad…

        • @[email protected]
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          14 hours ago

          It was not even the emails. I tried to duckgo it and only found this controversy (which was new to me). What I saw was a specific qute, possibly on topic of privacy or something adjecent which just made me go “nope!”

      • @[email protected]
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        916 hours ago

        The concerns are about the credit card you use to pay.

        The argument is that they can associate the card with your searches.

        As far as I know they don’t keep search data. I’m personally happy with them

        • @[email protected]
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          17 hours ago

          That’s what’s kept me from using it, although I very much like the idea of paying for a good service. I would love to see them figure out a way to avoid accounts.

        • @[email protected]
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          715 hours ago

          I think this might be it. There were also some statements by the CEO I think which didn’t exactly inspire confidencenin their company - but again, I don’t remember the details unfortunately

      • @majestictechie
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        216 hours ago

        Never heard any issues with Privacy, but I’ve heard issues about them using Brave search Results as part of their results.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 hours ago

          If i remember right, it wasn’t just using brave, but including a referral id in brave searches. It wasn’t intended, and they fixed it, so all good with me.