What's Next for Kagi?(blog.kagi.com)
blog.kagi.com
What's Next for Kagi?
https://blog.kagi.com/what-is-next-for-kagi
32 comments
I'm really glad this actually focuses on search and not "AI all the things". I'm definitely rooting for Kagi to succeed and not get bogged down with distractions.
Yeah I'm struggling to recall any other recent instances of companies giving their "AI" (really LLM) ambitions a realistic scope. Hearing "It's useful for some specific things" from Kagi, rather than "it will be in everything and change everything" is ... shockingly refreshing.
Congratulations to Vlad and the whole team. They are showing how a patient building of product and customer base can succeed, where a VC backed approach for a similar business model and product did not sustain. RIP Neeva.
We are delighted to support you as a customer and see your growth. Alternative search options are needed more than ever and becoming increasingly appreciated. We too are doing our bit in search, with a different business model and shared values about empowering a "human-centric and sustainable web that benefits individuals, communities, and society as a whole".
We are delighted to support you as a customer and see your growth. Alternative search options are needed more than ever and becoming increasingly appreciated. We too are doing our bit in search, with a different business model and shared values about empowering a "human-centric and sustainable web that benefits individuals, communities, and society as a whole".
Thanks for being a part of our journey Colin!
> With Kagi, for the first time in history of search engines, you are the customer and everything is built around you and your needs alone.
There have been several others that attempted this. They didn't succeed. But they're not the first.
I'm using SearXNG myself, which is quite similar to Kagi in that it combines search results from the other big parties (google, bing, brave). It's not quite as configurable (e.g. choosing to omit certain sites from the search results is not possible, but you can tune the relevance of each source search engine) but it serves me well and it's fully self-hosted. It can also easily integrate with more 'grey area' sources like torrent sites which is nice.
I try Kagi once in a while but I'm not yet conviced to pay for it - it is quite expensive by European (Spanish) standards. And I like to keep things under my own control. When I spend money I prefer it to go to hardware, hosting, knowhow etc. I even run an ollama server just so I don't have to use ChatGPT (for most things).
I try Kagi once every few months to see if it's significantly better than my own setup which so far hasn't really been the case. But I wish them well! :)
There have been several others that attempted this. They didn't succeed. But they're not the first.
I'm using SearXNG myself, which is quite similar to Kagi in that it combines search results from the other big parties (google, bing, brave). It's not quite as configurable (e.g. choosing to omit certain sites from the search results is not possible, but you can tune the relevance of each source search engine) but it serves me well and it's fully self-hosted. It can also easily integrate with more 'grey area' sources like torrent sites which is nice.
I try Kagi once in a while but I'm not yet conviced to pay for it - it is quite expensive by European (Spanish) standards. And I like to keep things under my own control. When I spend money I prefer it to go to hardware, hosting, knowhow etc. I even run an ollama server just so I don't have to use ChatGPT (for most things).
I try Kagi once every few months to see if it's significantly better than my own setup which so far hasn't really been the case. But I wish them well! :)
> There have been several others that attempted this.
Interesting, for my information, which companies are you referring to?
Interesting, for my information, which companies are you referring to?
My memory is fuzzy on what I used way back in the day like this. One was a meta-search engine across general engines (eg Google) and specialized engines. It had boolean operators to let me drill into the search. I think it was Turbosearch.
Regardless, I wanted features like that on top of Google, Bing, etc. It could be free and ad supported with a user focus like DuckDuckGo.
Also, a Kagi vs DuckDuckGo comparison might be more fair than Kagi vs Google since DDG is still serving the users despite being ad driven.
Regardless, I wanted features like that on top of Google, Bing, etc. It could be free and ad supported with a user focus like DuckDuckGo.
Also, a Kagi vs DuckDuckGo comparison might be more fair than Kagi vs Google since DDG is still serving the users despite being ad driven.
Aware of Neeva - Kagi was founded 3 years before it.
Yeah that was one I was thinking of. I didn't know it was more recent, it feels like ages ago. But also altavista, it was very customer centric, though it was free. But it was basically just a demonstration of digital's expertise and it did feel like they wanted it to serve the customer as well as possible.
And I thought DuckDuckGo had plans for a paid search experience at some point.
But now that in think of it I'm not so sure, sorry. Sorry for positing incorrect info.
And I thought DuckDuckGo had plans for a paid search experience at some point.
But now that in think of it I'm not so sure, sorry. Sorry for positing incorrect info.
Thanks for confirming, I was just genuinly curious if I missed one. I know browsers had a history of being paid, but no search engines before Kagi.
I've been really happy with Kagi, I've been using them a while.
One feature request, I actually wanted to brag about how long I've used it, and went to my account but couldn't see a "member since...", or a full purchase history. Seems like it would be a small but awesome feature :)
One feature request, I actually wanted to brag about how long I've used it, and went to my account but couldn't see a "member since...", or a full purchase history. Seems like it would be a small but awesome feature :)
> Kagi Maps, based on Mapbox and OpenStreetMaps.
Extremely exciting. Google Maps has gotten significantly worse in the last couple of years, finally passing the threshold of enshittification by instructing me to turn "at the <fast food seafood restaurant>" instead of just telling me the road name late last year. Search for points of interest has gotten awful, just as bad as Google Search, the Play Store, and the App Store with sponsored content taking over all usable space for basic searches (seriously, I do not want you to prioritise <fast food donut restaurant> when I search for "diner" or "coffee shop").
If Kagi can prioritise useful search results, trade ads for a monthly subscription, and contribute meaningful data back into OpenStreetMaps as a backend, I would subscribe in an instant. Currently DuckDuckGo is enough to meet my web search needs, but I desperately need a good alternative to Google Maps. Unfortunately Osmand is just not a great interface for most of my needs, and has no Android Auto support, either.
Extremely exciting. Google Maps has gotten significantly worse in the last couple of years, finally passing the threshold of enshittification by instructing me to turn "at the <fast food seafood restaurant>" instead of just telling me the road name late last year. Search for points of interest has gotten awful, just as bad as Google Search, the Play Store, and the App Store with sponsored content taking over all usable space for basic searches (seriously, I do not want you to prioritise <fast food donut restaurant> when I search for "diner" or "coffee shop").
If Kagi can prioritise useful search results, trade ads for a monthly subscription, and contribute meaningful data back into OpenStreetMaps as a backend, I would subscribe in an instant. Currently DuckDuckGo is enough to meet my web search needs, but I desperately need a good alternative to Google Maps. Unfortunately Osmand is just not a great interface for most of my needs, and has no Android Auto support, either.
Maps are the weakest part of Kagi right now, and it's a real sore spot for me. Searching for the name of a location often doesn't find it. Searching for addresses often finds a location in a different state (even if I specified the state). It seems to have no idea where I'm at in any way shape or form.
I've been trying to buy a cabin and looking up the addresses has basically meant just switching to Google, unfortunately. I'm really hoping the address lookup gets better, and it learns to search nearby results.
I've been trying to buy a cabin and looking up the addresses has basically meant just switching to Google, unfortunately. I'm really hoping the address lookup gets better, and it learns to search nearby results.
The fast food restaurant sign is usually 300 times larger than the road name sign, if there even is a road name sign. I have never been able to see any road name sign from the car.
> Unfortunately Osmand is just not a great interface for most of my needs, and has no Android Auto support, either.
This is probably not relevant to you (as I think it also does not have android auto) but there is also OSM app called Organic Maps.
This is probably not relevant to you (as I think it also does not have android auto) but there is also OSM app called Organic Maps.
I have a single feature i miss from Kagi - optional search history - i sometimes find myself unable to find exactly that article/bloggpost/documentation i found using some search words i don't remember from last week.
Please upvote this suggestion I just made on Kagi's feedback forum:
https://kagifeedback.org/d/4065-query-personal-search-histor...
I recently used my old Google search history to find something from 2022 (two years ago) and 2017 (seven years ago).
https://kagifeedback.org/d/4065-query-personal-search-histor...
I recently used my old Google search history to find something from 2022 (two years ago) and 2017 (seven years ago).
Would browser history help here?
No. See my comment here: https://kagifeedback.org/d/4065-query-personal-search-histor...
Browser history is too short, and has a terrible interface for searching/browsing more than a few days back.
Browser history is too short, and has a terrible interface for searching/browsing more than a few days back.
Do you delete your history regularly? At least on Firefox, I’m able to search stuff from months past just fine. Another nice thing I’ve found is simply opening up the SQLite file and running more advanced queries such as within a certain date range
Congratulations on profitability, and I’m really excited to see the roadmap you shared.
Side note: they are using bearblog.dev for their blog! That’s super awesome!
I’ve been very happy with Kagi, though I did eventually downgrade from the Ultimate to the regular plan as ChatGPT Plus added more usability features (memory, preprompts, voice conversations, etc). I’ll have to check the article to see if there are hints, but it’d be nice to have more reason for the big price jump going forward than goodwill and the advanced models.
But regular Kagi is one of those “take it out of my cold dead hands” sort of techs. Now that the iOS extension mostly works for bang redirects and such, it’s been a great experience on all platforms.
I have an iOS shortcut built around the Summarizer that has been invaluable for my TL;DR moments on sprawling articles. If I get bored I share to that shortcut and instantly get back bullet points in a popup window. Brilliant.
I’m happy to hear Kagi is successful and will likely be around for awhile. Going back to straight Google or DDG would be rough.
But regular Kagi is one of those “take it out of my cold dead hands” sort of techs. Now that the iOS extension mostly works for bang redirects and such, it’s been a great experience on all platforms.
I have an iOS shortcut built around the Summarizer that has been invaluable for my TL;DR moments on sprawling articles. If I get bored I share to that shortcut and instantly get back bullet points in a popup window. Brilliant.
I’m happy to hear Kagi is successful and will likely be around for awhile. Going back to straight Google or DDG would be rough.
For anyone who wants a less complicated solution, I use this bookmarklet on iOS, Firefox, etc.
https://gist.github.com/jk/f40c119fb548eed622a2d344a1c70b7b
Like the parent commenter, I use Kagi’s summarizer all the time: it has become an integral part of my online filtering process.
https://gist.github.com/jk/f40c119fb548eed622a2d344a1c70b7b
Like the parent commenter, I use Kagi’s summarizer all the time: it has become an integral part of my online filtering process.
Kagi has LLM chat too: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistant.html
They do, though my experience was it wasn’t really a comparable experience to app-accessed ChatGPT. Of course, you do have many more models to choose from, but I’m pretty sure I’m inclined to just align on one.
I will admit I never saw the custom instructions option though, which would have covered pre-prompting.
I will admit I never saw the custom instructions option though, which would have covered pre-prompting.
Waiting for Orion for Android.
They said last year if resources allow it, they would perhaps port Orion to other platforms.
https://orionfeedback.org/d/2321-orion-for-windows-android-l...
> We are getting a lot of repeat questions about windows/linux/android version and sometimes it appears that users think that the team is choosing not to work on these platforms. The situation is quite different and simpler - we do not have the resources to hire a new team to do any of these platforms yet.
> And since Orion is funded by its users only, it is entirely up to the number of subscribers and Orion+ sales we have that will enable funding a new team to make Orion for any new platform. And building a browser is not cheap, especially one on top of WebKit.
> Ways you can help accelerate this is:
> - Contribute to Orion development with your time
> - Help spread the word about Orion to attract more users
> - Get Orion+ and financially support developmet
https://orionfeedback.org/d/2321-orion-for-windows-android-l...
> We are getting a lot of repeat questions about windows/linux/android version and sometimes it appears that users think that the team is choosing not to work on these platforms. The situation is quite different and simpler - we do not have the resources to hire a new team to do any of these platforms yet.
> And since Orion is funded by its users only, it is entirely up to the number of subscribers and Orion+ sales we have that will enable funding a new team to make Orion for any new platform. And building a browser is not cheap, especially one on top of WebKit.
> Ways you can help accelerate this is:
> - Contribute to Orion development with your time
> - Help spread the word about Orion to attract more users
> - Get Orion+ and financially support developmet
Porting Orion to Android would be tough, but there is Kagi Android app in the works.
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BOOM! That's great news to hear. I've been paying for Kagi since the early adopter days and it's become one of my most used tools. It'd be really painful to replace it at this point and I hope Kagi stays in it for the long haul.
Just look at that side by side comparison with Google. I haven't used it without a adblocker in so long it's a shock. It's gotten really bad.