Pete's Log: Kagi Update
Entry #2570, (Coding, Hacking, & CS stuff, World Wide Web)(posted when I was 46 years old.)
It's been one year today since I became a paying Kagi customer. I was wearing their free shirt during my recent travels, so Branden naturally asked me about it.
I'm not quite certain how to evaluate the value I get from Kagi. I pay them $10 a month. There are several aspects to consider:
- What is the value of not seeing ads on searches?
- What is the incremental value of Kagi's performance vs free search engines?
- What is the value of encouraging competition in the search space?
For the first question, I can say I place a lot of value in not seeing ads. Of course I wouldn't value not seeing ads if the search results weren't any good. So this question is very much interconnected with the next one.
For the second question, I wish I had more data. I feel pretty sure that Kagi performs better than DuckDuckGo, but can't say it outperforms Google. Unfortunately, when I come across a query where the performance across search engines varies greatly, I'm usually too focused on my short term goal to take notes. And on occasion I've tried to go back after the fact to recreate a search I thought made a good sample, but have never had much luck after the fact.
For the third question, I'll just say I donate monthly to Marginalia Search and I rarely use it for serious searches.
So do I get $10 of value out of my Kagi subscription? I guess I'll say I value it enough that I don't intend to cancel it anytime soon. Beyond that, I'm still thinking about it.