Why pay for a search engine

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Search Usage and Pricing Model

  • Thread cites Kagi’s claim that 99% of people do <10 searches/day; several HN-style users say they easily exceed that, especially in technical work.
  • Starter plan (few hundred searches/month) works for some who consciously reduce “trivial” searches; others find the cap too low or price too high and want cheaper or usage-based tiers.
  • Pushback on per-search billing: some argue micro-pricing would create “mental transaction costs”; others note people already handle usage-based utilities.

Why Pay for Search vs Free/Ad-Supported

  • Many see payment as preferable to ad-driven models that incentivize clickbait, SEO spam, and data harvesting.
  • Others note that historically people paid for ad-filled media (newspapers, magazines), and free services can still be net-positive, especially for low-income users.
  • Some say a paid Google would not be attractive if it still optimized for ads.

Search Quality, Features, and Use Cases

  • Strong positive reports for technical/programming/math searches; users cite superior relevance and tools like:
    • Site/domain lenses and per-domain boosts/blocks.
    • Bangs/quick-bangs to jump directly to sites (often not counted against quota).
    • “Small web” boosting and SEO garbage suppression.
    • LLM/Quick Answer integration and universal summarization.
  • Weak spots: local/business searches (especially outside US), shopping search, Spanish/other non-English queries, and higher latency vs Google.
  • Some users still fall back to Google/Bing/Yandex for specific niches.

Privacy and GDPR Concerns

  • Kagi markets strong privacy guarantees and no logging of search histories.
  • Critics question GDPR compliance and point to past support exchanges that appeared dismissive of data-access requests.
  • Debate over whether Kagi’s privacy messaging is “marketing fluff” or credible; some trust it more than VPNs, others remain wary of any “we will always respect your privacy” claims.

LLMs vs Search Engines

  • Some argue search will be displaced by tools like ChatGPT; others report LLM hallucinations force them back to traditional search for verification.
  • Kagi’s integration of live-search-based answers is presented as an alternative to standalone LLMs.

Astroturfing, Strategy, and the State of the Web

  • Multiple long, enthusiastic testimonials lead some to suspect astroturfing; others attribute this to strong overlap between Kagi’s audience and HN.
  • Concerns about the founder’s communication style and side projects (Orion browser) raise questions about focus.
  • Broader discussion that SEO and AI-generated content are “killing the web”; some hope curated/paid search and community-driven blocklists can mitigate, others think the open web is in long-term decline.