I Lost Faith in Kagi

Partnerships and Founder’s Politics

• Some object to Kagi’s ties to Brave due to Brave’s founder’s past anti–same‑sex‑marriage donations and choose to boycott Brave (and by extension Kagi’s partnership).
• Others argue this is inconsistent given Kagi’s reliance on Bing from day one, and that boycotting individual founders is impractical or selectively applied.
• There’s broader debate on how much a founder’s personal politics should affect usage of their products.

Scope Creep and Product Focus

• Many feel Kagi is “spread too thin”: search, AI tools, Orion browser, maps, future email, and a large T‑shirt campaign.
• Core wish from many paying users: focus on making search excellent (and in some views, reduce Bing/Google dependence, fix local/maps, improve long‑tail relevance) rather than chasing side products.
• Others see experimentation with AI, browser, and email as strategically necessary to compete with Google’s ecosystem and to acquire users.

T‑Shirt Campaign and Spending

• Strong criticism of spending roughly a third of a funding round on producing and globally distributing ~20k premium T‑shirts via a custom merch operation.
• Many see this as emblematic of poor capital discipline and misplaced priorities; especially coming from a small, fragile startup.
• Supporters frame it as unconventional marketing and a thank‑you to early adopters; the founder states it didn’t jeopardize finances and that Kagi is now profitable, though admits complexity and delay were misjudged.

AI Features and “Future of Search”

• Enthusiasts: AI “Quick Answer,” summarizer, and multi‑model assistant are cited as key reasons to subscribe and as genuinely useful.
• Critics: dislike LLM integration on principle or find it low‑value and fear Kagi is copying Google’s missteps; some want search only, no hallucinating assistants.
• There’s disagreement on whether serious modern search “must” use AI or whether it degrades precision and transparency.

Privacy, GDPR, and Anonymity

• Major concern centers on the founder’s public comments: downplaying email as personal data, suggesting only a tiny number of people “truly need anonymity,” and dismissing some GDPR processes.
• Multiple commenters (some citing GDPR text) assert email and other identifiers are clearly personal data and must be handled under GDPR; they see Kagi’s stance as legally wrong and worrying for a privacy‑branded search engine.
• Others think this reflects inexperience rather than malice, note that Kagi says it doesn’t log searches, and still consider it better than ad‑tech‑funded alternatives, though trust is shaken for some.

Founder–Critic Email Exchange and Discourse

• A published email thread shows the founder repeatedly emailing a critical blogger after clear “please stop” requests.
• Many view this as boundary‑crossing, “sealioning,” and evidence of ego and poor social judgment.
• Others argue that publishing a very negative post invites response; they see the critic as performatively hostile and the founder as over‑eager but not malicious.

Search Quality and User Experience

• Fans: describe Kagi search as dramatically better than Google/DDG, especially with per‑site block/boost/pin controls and lenses; some “can’t imagine going back.”
• Detractors: find results only marginally better or sometimes worse, especially past the top few hits, for local business/maps, or for certain niches; some canceled after specific failures.
• Several note perceived recent degradation (“more Bing‑like”) and stress that constant tuning is essential.

Business Viability and Trust

• Kagi’s small user base (~20–25k subscribers) and small team raise questions about sustainability against Google/Microsoft.
• Side projects (Orion, email, maps, T‑shirts) are seen by some as risky distractions that could doom the company; others see them as bold bets enabled by founder self‑funding.
• A common middle position: continue subscribing because the product is currently best‑in‑class, but with growing unease about privacy posture, founder judgment, and long‑term focus.