Comment on Kagi silently removed all references to Google's index from their website

SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• vanderbilt@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  He offered to start a conversation about his blog post and give his perspective. The only thing I see here is the author refusing to stand on their post.

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  • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I didn’t read every little bit as well, but that was my take away as well. I saw an emotially invested CEO who could not bear seeing his baby dragged through the mud, and so he wanted to provide a counterpoint to what he saw as misinformation and accusations, but in a polite professional manner. My first instinct would be that he would have been wasting his time with that, but seeing as his comments got posted and they make a more convincing level headed argument then the accusations, maybe it was worth it.

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    • Zengen@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I agree with this perspective. The CEO felt like the more reasonable guy here who wanted to respectfully and professionally clear his name through polite conversation. And the writer here seemed very aggressive. The line of questioning was outwardly hostile and accusatory with literally nothing for good evidence.

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• redcalcium@lemmy.institute ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Just for some perspective, if you want to know how little reach the fedi post with the link to this blog post got: the first post in this thread already has more likes and boosts after less than a hour since posting it than my blog post ever did that he felt the need to confront me over.

  The author probably wasn’t aware that their blog post has a huge engagement in hacker news just the day before and the CEO got roasted there, so the CEO probably felt the need to contact the author to “correct” their post.

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  • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The author was aware. They made a post regarding it getting posted to hackernews stating “I specifically requested for this not to happen.”

    so the CEO probably felt the need to contact the author to “correct” their post.

    This still makes the CEO seem like an unhinged fucking freak who does not respect personal boundaries, it literally makes him look no better, no matter how he came across it.

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    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      … Contacting someone makes you an: “unhinged fucking freak who does not respect personal boundaries”?

      More people need to go touch grass, this is insane.

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    • capital@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      lol they asked that their public post wasn’t posted somewhere else on the internet?

      Are they new here or something? The fuck?

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    • Wiz@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes. How many times did she ask him to stop contacting her?

      Yet he kept coming at her, all like, “Just debate me!”

      No. Take a hint, dude!

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    • DeprecatedCompatV2@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If someone posts an angry rant about your company, and you email them to say “you’re wrong and I’m sorry you feel that way” that makes you an “unhinged … freak?” This is not the president sending the secret service to your college dorm room lol.

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      • Wiz@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        No, he started being an unhinged freak when it was a private email exchange.

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• niemcycle@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Oh interesting, I never knew about that side of Kagi. The fact the company is focused so hard on AI is a red flag. I don’t think I’ll renew my subscription when it comes up later this year, given how erratic their plans seem.

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  • Moderator@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What service will you use instead?

    -a Kagi subscriber

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  • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Genuine question, why is AI bad/concerning?

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  • DeprecatedCompatV2@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    AI bad now?

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• Lemmchen@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I don’t see how this is relevant to this at all.

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  • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Eh, yeah ya do. It clearly speaks to the question of how honest and forthcoming the CEO, & by extension the company culture, is about which sources they use. The CEO has a history of the kind of interactions they had with the poster

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    • DeprecatedCompatV2@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      How many CEOs do you know who don’t act like they’re made of solid gold?

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• Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Ironically going to use Kagi to summarize the blog post:

  Kagi is trying to expand into too many different products and services beyond just their search engine, which is stretching their resources too thin.

  Kagi spent a significant portion of their funding (1/3) to set up a t-shirt printing business to give away free t-shirts to their first 20,000 users, which seems like a questionable financial decision.

  Kagi was not paying sales tax for two years and had to retroactively pay up, indicating potential financial mismanagement.

  Kagi is heavily focused on developing AI tools and features, to the point where the author believes it is becoming the main focus over improving the core search functionality.

  The author is very critical of Kagi’s founder Vlad’s dismissive attitude towards privacy concerns and his belief that email addresses are not personally identifiable information.

  Vlad has a “my way or the highway” management style and is unwilling to consider feedback or criticism about Kagi’s direction.

  Kagi’s dedication to privacy is questionable, as the founder does not seem to take many privacy concerns seriously.

  The author believes Kagi’s AI-powered features like “FastGPT” and the “Universal Summarizer” are inaccurate and unreliable.

  The author is skeptical about Kagi’s long-term sustainability and viability as a business.

  Overall, the author has lost faith in Kagi due to the company’s questionable financial decisions, overreliance on AI, and the founder’s dismissive attitude towards user concerns.

  I did actually read the post (and I think this is actually my second time seeing this). I’m majorly unconvinced by the author … and yes, the criticized AI summarizer is that good. I regularly use it after reading something to share the details with friends (or get a rough idea of what’s being discussed and decide if I want to read something non-trivially long).

  It also works on YouTube videos using the transcript which can be a HUGE time saver.

  Ultimately the search is good; it’s better than what Google offers me, and I’ve found their AI tools fairly useful (despite having distrust for GPT-style chat bots/BS generating AI, I think summerization of some specified source is something they might actually do well).

  Whether the company will stay private / whether it lives on beyond Vlad is the biggest concern I have with using it. However, “what’s the other (practical) option to invest in?” I find myself in a similar position with Steam and Proton (at least the latter open sources much of their work). For now anyways, the weather is fair, so I’ll stay on board.

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