Comment on You're Not Imagining It: Google Search Results Are Getting Worse, Study Finds

• Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Well fuck. I want nothing to do with kagi now.

  source

  • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    [deleted]

    source

    • Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s frustrating. But not surprising. Indexing the internet ain’t cheap.

      source
• loudwhisper@infosec.pub ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  That’s not an engine, it’s a metaengine. The results are still tied to the engines used, which means if they are trash, you get trash. Kagi uses a mix of google/yandex/brave etc. and then elaborates them as well, in addition to have their own scraper for things like the small web (which is great to surface personal blogs).

  They are not comparable. Also, kagi’s privacy policy is exemplar and the account can be paid in crypto now (if you don’t want to use CC).

  Besides, there is no such thing as free hosting, similarly to Lemmy, it’s just someone paying.

  source

  • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s not an engine, it’s a metaengine

    Really strange nitpick to bring up as a first point. If Kagi is a meta-engine, then SearX is too. Maybe you simply haven’t tried it, because it cites multiple sources per search.

    And Brave has ties back to using Google data:

    Brave’s search is optimized against Google search results. Ever since its Cliqz ancestry, documented on the Cliqz blog, it optimizes its ranking algorithm to match Google ranking as closely as possible. Brave’s search discovery project uses clicks on Google’s results in the Brave browser to discover new sites. In other words, it’s not sufficiently different from Google to really diversify the search results.

    there is no such thing as free hosting, similarly to Lemmy

    People who host Lemmy and SearchX instances are doing it charitably. And SearX does not pay any big company back, AFAICT.

    Kagi is a for-profit corporation that postures as not being one, even talking about “fundraisers” and “humanizing the web.”

    Big difference.

    source

    • loudwhisper@infosec.pub ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Kagi is an engine, searx is a meta-engine. That’s what I meant. Which means kagi does not simply collate results from multiple source (like searx does), but implements its own logic. This means that - for example - it deranks website with many trackers, or can implement various features on top of the results. So it’s not a nitpick, it’s a substantial difference between an engine (kagi) and a metaengine (searx), which is essentially a proxy + aggregation of other engines.

      It’s a known fact that brave optimizes result based on google data, and the kagi guys themselves in fact added that - with it being cheaper than google API - it could be a vector to eventually reduce cost for google API without impacting results.

      That said, AFAIK kagi does not pose as a nonprofit, I think they make extremely clear that running searches (scraping, paying API, etc.) cost money and that they need to be profitable. Their stance is that by using a subscription model, their business interests align with user’s interests of providing good searches, rather than results that benefit advertisers, which is completely reasonable. This is literally written in their “why pay for searches” article that is presented when they show the pricing.

      Of course it is a big difference, and you can argue for pros and cons of both options. I personally think the internet should not be based either on megacorp nor on free labor. Would I prefer kagi being a co-op? Sure. But it’s not like relying solely on free labor is free from any moral implication either (sure, you can donate, and I do to Lemmy for example, but only a minority does).

      source

      • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Kagi is an engine, searx is a meta-engine… it’s a substantial difference between an engine (kagi) and a metaengine (searx), which is essentially a proxy + aggregation of other engines.

        This is more of a distraction than a distinction.

        Kagi’s results mostly come from others. Its community is criticizing it for the results coming from others.

        A criticism that, I note, you don’t seem to touch. If you must respond to anything, I would love to hear your response to their corporate decision to fund a shady company run by a shady man.

        It’s a known fact that brave optimizes result based on google data

        … Known by who? It’s definitely not common knowledge.

        [Paying Brave] could be a vector to eventually reduce cost…

        Which is a pretty good demonstration that Kagi as a corporation is seeking profit first and foremost.

        That said, AFAIK kagi does not pose as a nonprofit

        Then you only nitpick the label I gave my examples, not the “we’re all in it together” emotional appeals aping the language of a non-profit. For example,

        “We exist to make the internet a healthier, happier place for everyone”

        Which I found on the business’ page you mentioned, is written more like they are a cutesy nonprofit than anything.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
• RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m so technologically illiterate I couldn’t figure out how to access the sears.space website. All I can find is versions and instances and a GitHub page

  source

  • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Every site on the leftmost column is a SearX instance. e.g. searxng.site

    It’s like… Lemmy, actually.

    source
• alansuspect@aussie.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I picked up from their response that they’re just using the public API, not in any kind of partnership?

  source