I can appreciate the hesitancy because you need an account, but Kagi is such a great search engine. Their incentives align much better with their actual users and because of that they support tons of customization/filtering options Google just can't (read: won't).
I tried Kagi once and never really felt like it was good enough to make me want to pay for it. Search is like air. Very important, but available everywhere for free. Pretty hard for me to justify adding another subscription to the already extant mountain.
Google is the air of a teeming metropolis in a developing country. Every breath is polluted with foreign substances that someone else out there. Your capacity suffers as each action is taxed by the aerosolized tar.
searX is mountain air. Pure, but cold and so so thin. You struggle to collect enough oxygen, waiting for the life-giving molecules to trickle in. A bracing adventure for most, a home for the hardy, adapted few.
DuckDuckGo is the air of a rich suburb. The pollution is manageable and pressure sufficient. You breathe freely, undistracted, content in the assumption that your essential need is satisfied. It is sufficient, comfortable, unremarkable, there.
Kagi is a seaside breeze, wafting the richness of a vibrant and alien ecosystem through your awareness. You may sense the oily tang of a nearby dockyard; it’s but one note in the harmony, fading behind the marine life, the ocean salts, the sizzling morsels of upshore boardwalk. You breathe deeply. Your awareness stretches, stitching scent to sound; your focus dances across the possibilities, musing which possibility to explore today. A corner of your mind resents the cost of your rented villa; another fantasizes about buying it, about making this place your home. Could I afford it…?
> Google is the air of a teeming metropolis in a developing country. Every breath is polluted with foreign substances that someone else out there. Your capacity suffers as each action is taxed by the aerosolized tar.
Is it though? To the extent that I need to pay for an alternative? I struggle to recall when I ever searched for something and went down to the second half of my screen. I do agree searching using the Google app on an Android phone is crazy, but who would subject themselves to that? On a browser with a proper ad blocker, I don't see how it is that horrible.
Do you have an example of a search where Google gives such an odious result, but another engine's is excellent?
Where's the town that's always trying to reinvent itself, with the layers of failure and renewal visible in the back alleys and unfinished remodels left behind in the last economic crisis? I want that search engine.
