Status-Q

I’ve been doing an experiment which I fear will end up costing me money.  And this is in response to the observation that so much of the online world we see is filtered through Google.  I have nothing against Google, but this means that the starting point for most online exploration is filtered  through Google’s business model.  

Suppose I viewed the world through somebody else’s business model instead?

Building a search engine is hard.  Building one that can come close to competing with Google is really hard.  

For a while, on some of my machines, I’ve been using the popular DuckDuckGo, and it’s been pretty good.  (The only way to try these things properly, I think, is to set them as your default search engine and then see how often you find them falling short.)  The name was a mystery to me, never having heard of the children’s game ‘Duck, duck, goose’ before, but the business model and the appeal is simple: they do run ads, but not as many; they do much less tracking, the ads aren’t targeted, and they help block other companies from tracking you as well.  It has many devotees.

But this weekend, I came across something better: Kagi.  No ads. No tracking. Nice and fast. Elegant layout, and lots of customisation options.  And, having used it as the default on my desktop, laptop and iPad for a few days, very good results!   But of course, there’s no such thing as a free search, so the catch here is that you have to pay.  For most people, the $5/month plan, which gets you 300 searches per month, will be sufficient, but there are lots of variations.  I think the Duo family plan, which gives two people unlimited searches for (effectively) £10/month, sounds appealing.

So, would I pay £120/year (or £42/year, for the individual basic plan purchased annually) for something which I could get for free? Well, their free trial, which got me 100 free searches, has made me think that I probably would.  Search is such a key part of day-to-day life, that this seems a modest premium to get a better version where you don’t have to start by scrolling past the sponsored links.

Here’s a short video showing a few of the extra bits you get for your money:

(Direct link)

Definitely tempted.