Kagi: $5/month for a search engine in 2024?

[dragontamer5788]

I've known about this service for a few years now, but I haven't tried signing up for it until now.

Kagi Search

Ultimately, I do think that the advertisement-supported text web is dying. Advertisements can drive new opportunities as long as more-and-more eyeballs are available. So with rising TikTok usage or Youtube viewership, video platforms remain reasonable.

But text? Blogs? Documents? News articles? "Classic Google" ?? Everyone knows the search is getting worse and worse.

-------

Kagi does start with 100 free searches. I'll give it a shot. I've given it 3x searches today and am reasonably impressed with the results so far. And I do think I'll upgrade eventually to the $5/month tier, at least in the short term. I guess my frustration with Google has finally reached a boiling point, and DuckDuckGo still isn't quite to the level I want. So its time for me to start trying paid-search services.

Anyone else trying paid search engines? Is Kagi the only one out there? Anyone have experience with this?

 

[dgianstefani]

Kagi is the best.

If you're not paying, you're the product.

I use it along with Qwant which is a semi anonymised Bing wrapper.

Google isn't even a particularly good search engine anymore. It's only relevance is because it's still practically a monopoly. There's better algorithms.

Everything else is either data mining or not very good, including the AI enhanced stuff.

 

[ir_cow]

If you're not paying, you're the product.

Yep and I'm fine with that. Targeted ads don't work when you ad-blocker

 

[dgianstefani]

Yep and I'm fine with that. Targeted ads don't work when you ad-blocker

It's not the targeted adverts that are the problem.

It's search engines that obfuscate results they don't align with, while selling your data to the highest bidder. Worst of both worlds.

Sources of information are incredibly influential, and I no longer tolerate soulless corporations deciding what I should or should not see.

I'm not naïve enough to believe there's truly unbiased sources, but there's definitely a relative scale.

Ask HN: What search engines are you using? | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

I did a lot of research before settling on the default engines I use. It's good to know there's other enthusiasts with similar priorities.

A Review Of The Best Search Engines - Based On Speed & Relevancy - GreyCoder

Based on my research, these are the best search engine currently.

greycoder.com

Note duckduckgo, ecosia, start page, Qwant and the rest etc, are all either wrappers for Google, or Bing. The actual search results content is still generated by one of those two.

Kagi at least has its own crawler and index. You can also use filters quite effectively.

I've known about this service for a few years now, but I haven't tried signing up for it until now.

Kagi Search

Ultimately, I do think that the advertisement-supported text web is dying. Advertisements can drive new opportunities as long as more-and-more eyeballs are available. So with rising TikTok usage or Youtube viewership, video platforms remain reasonable.

But text? Blogs? Documents? News articles? "Classic Google" ?? Everyone knows the search is getting worse and worse.

-------

Kagi does start with 100 free searches. I'll give it a shot. I've given it 3x searches today and am reasonably impressed with the results so far. And I do think I'll upgrade eventually to the $5/month tier, at least in the short term. I guess my frustration with Google has finally reached a boiling point, and DuckDuckGo still isn't quite to the level I want. So its time for me to start trying paid-search services.

Anyone else trying paid search engines? Is Kagi the only one out there? Anyone have experience with this?

Neeva is the only other decent one, also paid.

But they integrate AI stuff so that's of questionable quality.

Google scholar is still somewhat useful.

As is Google search if you're directly looking to buy something and you already know what it is.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I have several hesitations about Kagi.

First, after years and years of using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo (even Yahoo), I have learned that effective/applicable search results is greatly dependent on the search criteria (words and phrases) we enter to search for. And I know that pretty well so I can usually find what I am looking for very quickly.

I have also learned over the years, how to ignore and cull out the extra "adware" search engines toss up.

Let's not forget, our ISPs can already see and record everything we do online anyway. And that is linked to our real names, street address and billing information. And read the fine print of your service agreement. Dollars to donuts says they share that with 3rd parties already. Yes, there's VPNs and other actions we can do to help protect our privacy. But odds are, that will incur a recurring monthly fee too.

And of course, our cell phone providers know everything we do on our cell phones including who we talk to, who we text with, our physical location to within a few feet, including the aisle of the store we are in, where we came from, the direction we are heading and how fast we are traveling. AND that is already linked to our real names, real addresses, phone number, and billing information.

So I have to wonder, unless I am involved in illegal activities I want to hide, what's the point?

One big thing I really do not like about Kagi is it requires us to register and make an account. While it claims it does not save our search history, how do we know that is true? And will remain true? Since they do force us to register and be logged in, it is NOT anonymous because the price plans keep track of the number of searches we make each month. 100 searches for the free account, 300 searches for the $5/month (unlimited for $10/month).

How do we know another company in the future won't make them an offer they can't refuse, then suddenly, the new owners know more about us than Google?

How do we know their system will not be hacked and all our information suddenly appears on the dark web?

Then of course, while $5/month is not a budget buster, it is yet another recurring bill. I already have monthly water, gas, sewer, trash, electric, insurance, house payment/escrow, phones, cable TV, Netflix and Internet. That doesn't even cover fuel for my truck, or food. Oh, and don't forget the monthly fee for the VPN.

Do I want yet another monthly bill? Nope. Do I really think Kagi is going provide any significant level of privacy considering how much exposure we already have? Nope.

 

[dgianstefani]

I have several hesitations about Kagi.

First, after years and years of using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo (even Yahoo), I have learned that effective/applicable search results is greatly dependent on the search criteria (words and phrases) we enter to search for. And I know that pretty well so I can usually find what I am looking for very quickly.

I have also learned over the years, how to ignore and cull out the extra "adware" search engines toss up.

Let's not forget, our ISPs can already see and record everything we do online anyway. And that is linked to our real names, street address and billing information. And read the fine print of your service agreement. Dollars to donuts says they share that with 3rd parties already. Yes, there's VPNs and other actions we can do to help protect our privacy. But odds are, that will incur a recurring monthly fee too.

And of course, our cell phone providers know everything we do on our cell phones including who we talk to, who we text with, our physical location to within a few feet, including the aisle of the store we are in, where we came from, the direction we are heading and how fast we are traveling. AND that is already linked to our real names, real addresses, phone number, and billing information.

So I have to wonder, unless I am involved in illegal activities I want to hide, what's the point?

One big thing I really do not like about Kagi is it requires us to register and make an account. While it claims it does not save our search history, how do we know that is true? And will remain true? Since they do force us to register and be logged in, it is NOT anonymous because the price plans keep track of the number of searches we make each month. 100 searches for the free account, 300 searches for the $5/month (unlimited for $10/month).

How do we know another company in the future won't make them an offer they can't refuse, then suddenly, the new owners know more about us than Google?

How do we know their system will not be hacked and all our information suddenly appears on the dark web?

Then of course, while $5/month is not a budget buster, it is yet another recurring bill. I already have monthly water, gas, sewer, trash, electric, insurance, house payment/escrow, phones, cable TV, Netflix and Internet. That doesn't even cover fuel for my truck, or food. Oh, and don't forget the monthly fee for the VPN.

Do I want yet another monthly bill? Nope. Do I really think Kagi is going provide any significant level of privacy considering how much exposure we already have? Nope.

This is an opinion you need to have used the service to have.

You're entitled to doubt, but perhaps look into the actual differences between competing search engine models.

If you're OK with two companies (Google and Microsoft) having a duopoly on 99%+ of internet traffic, are you also OK with the dead internet theory, i.e. massive prevalence of bots, AI generated content, segmented and divided identity politics echo chambers etc?

Having independant companies that provide services requires funding. You can get that funding through adverts (not private), sponsorship (not without strings) or user funded (not free). Decisions you make like these allow some semblance of "independant" information dissemination.

I do get tired of the "nothing is 100% private so why care" attitude, I have to say. It irks me, and I'm used to seeing it from the technologically illiterate, but not from people who frequent enthusiast technology forums.

It's the abdication of citizen rights and responsibilities, which include the responsibility of choice, that has led us to this somewhat dystopian digital world.

"Nothing to hide nothing to fear" is literally Orwellian.

Bugs me that friends who are otherwise intelligent resist using superior open-source and free messaging apps such as Signal. I'm a "privacy freak" because I find Meta distasteful and refuse to use WhatsApp, Insta etc.

Even disregarding privacy and security factors, Kagi and Signal are better at what they do than the conventional alternatives.

You're also asking "how do we know" their claims are true?

Well, we know for a fact that the conventional alternatives are doing all the things we don't want them to. So even if the competition isn't perfect, that's a silly comparison. Player A is robbing me, is making plans to rob me in future, and each time the robbery is worse. Player B may rob me in future, therefore it makes no sense to align with player B. Does this make sense to you?

 

[Dr. Dro]

I see it even has Wolfram Alpha integration. Nice service, it gives me the same vibes that Proton did when I first signed up for it. I find privacy and internet-freedom focused startups most endearing, I ended up paying for a month of Proton's highest tier subscription service as a form of donation at the time, although their free e-mail service works well enough for me.

I'd be willing to give this a try as long as it's at least as accurate as Bing. Bing usually already doesn't find a lot of the things that I have to use Google for, primarily dealing with academic documents and other education-related subjects. I ended up subscribing to a paid service to get most of my study-related searches done, as it offers a reasonably accurate AI bot to evaluate questions posed and the content is regularly reviewed by professionals.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I do get tired of the "nothing is 100% private so why care" attitude, I have to say. It irks me, and I'm used to seeing it from the technologically illiterate, but not from people who frequent enthusiast technology forums.

And I get tired of passive aggressive folks who post criticisms of others because they are intolerant of opinions that don't align with their own.

Please note I made no criticism whatsoever with the program's merits as a search engine. And yes, it is common knowledge that providing a service requires funding that must come from somewhere. None of that was my point.

This is an opinion you need to have used the service to have.

No its not. First, "most" of what I said is based on established facts and by pure observation, not opinion. All search engines do (or better do) essentially the same thing. If I am looking for the phone number to the closest Mexican food restaurant, any search engine should readily provide it. Or if I am researching "respiratory syncytial virus", any search engine can answer that - with the same hits too.

Yes, it is my opinion that I do not like having to register. But again, that opinion is based on fact and observation. We do have to register. That is not an opinion, but a fact.

It is also my opinion that I don't want another recurring, monthly bill. I am sorry that offends you, that you object so strongly to me expressing that, that you found it necessary to comment how tired you are that someone who frequents a forum for enthusiasts would dare say something like that.

Kagi is not claiming, and frankly, cannot claim it will find your answers when the others can't. It can claim it is faster. It can claim it does not keep our search history. It can claim it does not post ads, or load the results. But it cannot claim if finds desired results others cannot.

I do get tired of the "nothing is 100% private so why care" attitude

To be clear, I NEVER SAID THAT. My point clearly was about questioning paying for a service to hide our search requests when our ISPs and cell carriers will not only see that search, but will also see what sites we visit as a result of those search requests?

And I did mention VPNs too.

I'm a "privacy freak" because I find Meta distasteful and refuse to use WhatsApp, Insta etc.

LOL Then you are and I cut from the same cloth! I also refuse to use Apple products for the same reason (well, them being so proprietary is another reason).

What many do not seem to understand is there is a huge difference between privacy and security. Google learning I like Mexican food does NOT affect my security.

To your point, I get flabbergasted when I see people complain about Google or Microsoft spying on them, then see those same people posting - in real time!!!! - their daily activities on Facebook, etc.

And FTR, contrary to what many believe, while you can legitimately argue that Microsoft is evil, they are nothing compared to Google or Facebook, our ISPs or cell phone carriers.

Microsoft is NOT, for example, trying to learn our real names or who we contact. If you connect to your network via Ethernet, the closest they know of our actual physical location is our PoP (point of presence), the point where our ISP connect us to the Internet backbone. In my case, that is 9 miles across town.

If you connect to your network via wifi, then, sadly, your location is probably identified within a few yards. Just another reason to use Ethernet when able.

See: https://my-location.org/

 

[dgianstefani]

No its not. First, "most" of what I said is based on established facts and by pure observation, not opinion. All search engines do (or better do) essentially the same thing. If I am looking for the phone number to the closest Mexican food restaurant, any search engine should readily provide it. Or if I am researching "respiratory syncytial virus", any search engine can answer that - with the same hits too.

This isn't true though.

Search engines order their results and show/hide results based on their priorities, not what the user may desire to see. This is why SEO exists. Google pushes their customers to their users.

There's literal public statements from certain search engines regarding their political bias filtering out results too. Let alone the commercial favouring of certain results.

Hence - use it before judging it.

 

[Bill_Bright]

This isn't true though.

Search engines order their results and show/hide results based on their priorities, not what the user may desire to see.

It is true. And you just verified it. Yes, I may have to find what I am looking for on page two of the results, but the results are there. And again, this is greatly dependent on the search criteria.

Hence - use it before judging it.

You still are judging (and mispresenting) what I said based on your own biases and intolerances.

I was not commenting on how effective it is as a search engine. It may be excellent. Not the point.

I am saying I don't want another monthly bill - especially when the program cannot offer me any significant additional protection.

Realistically, what percentage of your computing day is spent using a search engine? Compare that to how much time you are surfing the net just following links here and there - all of which your ISP is tracking.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Do I want yet another monthly bill? Nope. Do I really think Kagi is going provide any significant level of privacy considering how much exposure we already have? Nope.

At least as far as I'm concerned, I'm not super interested in privacy.

I'm just concerned that my search results suck and that I need to add like "reddit.com", read through discussions and then launch off of there in many cases.

Kagi seems to have done that process to some extent and has better looking links, at least from my demos so far. Its not "mindblowing" but it is "pleasant" so far. Yeah, the search quality does seem improved over Google, but more testing required for me.

Realistically, what percentage of your computing day is spent using a search engine? Compare that to how much time you are surfing the net just following links here and there - all of which your ISP is tracking.

How much time "searching" ?? I mean, not much on Google per se.

But if I get a random article, it could be 2 or 3 minutes before I realize its a copy/pasted or LLM-generated piece of low-quality garbage that wasn't worth my time at all.

Search doesn't take long. But reading the articles that come up after search takes time, and the Google-quality articles are worse-and-worse quality in recent years. I'm spending more and more time reading utter trash because that's the crap that launches to the top of Google today.

I get it. SEO has gotten better, but its the Search Engine Team's job to fight back against the "Blackhat SEO" marketers. And maybe Google's priorities have shifted to the point where they've given up on the anti Blackhat SEO-fight, leading to this sorry state of search. But Kagi seems to have picked up the slack and has determined an alternate funding model ($$$/month).

That's really all I want. Get the blogspam / SEO-crap off of my search results (including the shit LLM results), give me the "real human articles". And as LLMs grow more powerful, I can only imagine more of this trash being generated. So moving forward, I begrudgingly accept this $$$/month cost for good search. The tech world has changed (and for the worse), and its time that I need to start considering alternate habits.

 

[Vayra86]

I am saying I don't want another monthly bill - especially when the program cannot offer me any significant additional protection.

This is my take away too from a paid search engine.

Sure you can pay for anything and said company can sell you an idea of it being better. Or you can click a few more times. I think that's what's really on the table here.

I'll click a few more times tbh. It works a lot like that in today's life. A few extra clicks can save you a lot of money. Time really is money then huh

Still using DDG here, not having any complaints to be completely honest. I can find what I need to find, political angle, I never even caught wind of.

Yep and I'm fine with that. Targeted ads don't work when you ad-blocker

Exactly. A search bubble does however, not too keen on that myself. Every browser I start is a fresh session, I keep no history and DDG isn't tagging me either. And I'm behind a VPN.

 

[Bill_Bright]

How much time "searching" ?? I mean, not much on Google per se.

Unless you are a researcher by trade, I suspect most spend less than 5 minutes per day actually using a search engine.

But if I get a random article, it could be 2 or 3 minutes before I realize its a copy/pasted or LLM-generated piece of low-quality garbage that wasn't worth my time at all.

Search doesn't take long. But reading the articles that come up after search takes time, and the Google-quality articles are worse-and-worse quality in recent years. I'm spending more and more time reading utter trash because that's the crap that launches to the top of Google today.

Well, perhaps we review search findings differently. When I search, I can quickly scan through the results and see what is Google (or Bing) generated and what goes to a "likely" legitimate site. This is in part because most of the time, I know - in general - what I am looking for.

My point is, I just cannot see me spending more than a few seconds, let alone 2 o 3 minutes before I realize something is not what I am looking for.

 

[chrcoluk]

Its pretty pricy as in reality the $5 option isnt enough.

A paid for service and it doesnt even have pagination, so the issue for me is it offers nothing, just ad free, and that isnt enough. However they have some kind of community feedback site, so I submitted this.

Add pagination / infinite scrolling to Results page - Kagi Feedback

The existing search engines are now far less usable without pagination, and this would be the one feature that would...

kagifeedback.org

 

[dragontamer5788]

Its pretty pricy as in reality the $5 option isnt enough.

A paid for service and it doesnt even have pagination, so the issue for me is it offers nothing, just ad free, and that isnt enough. However they have some kind of community feedback site, so I submitted this.

Add pagination / infinite scrolling to Results page - Kagi Feedback

The existing search engines are now far less usable without pagination, and this would be the one feature that would...

kagifeedback.org

I don't know how many searches on DDG that I do each month. But 300 searches/month seems like a reasonable number to me. I dunno, I'll give it $5 when my trial runs out and see how often I actually run out. But I honestly don't expect that I'll eat all 300 every month.

Its nice in that there is something under the $10/month plan which starts feeling pricy to me. But $5/month is like a VM / droplet. Its really cheap as far as internet services go IMO. I mean, Fastmail is $50/year (a bit under $5/month) for email, for example. I guess I'm old enough to remember older email or other internet prices.

 

[Bill_Bright]

don't know how many searches on DDG that I do each month.

Even if you did 3 a day, that is still under 100 - limit for the free version.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Even if you did 3 a day, that is still under 100 - limit for the free version.

Free version is 100, period. There's no "per month" renewal, its literally just a few searches for trial purposes.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Free version is 100, period.

Okay fine. That argument is just a quibble. Does it change the facts? Nope.

 

[R-T-B]

If you're OK with two companies (Google and Microsoft) having a duopoly on 99%+ of internet traffic, are you also OK with the dead internet theory, i.e. massive prevalence of bots, AI generated content, segmented and divided identity politics echo chambers etc?

Do I have to be? For all the iffiness of Google/MS, you have yet to link them to any of those activities beyond filtering blatant misinformation.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of reason for a search like Kagi, but I think you are placing the blame for the issue somewhat willynilly and without substantiating evidence of the antagonist's identity here.

 

[A&P211]

I have several hesitations about Kagi.

First, after years and years of using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo (even Yahoo), I have learned that effective/applicable search results is greatly dependent on the search criteria (words and phrases) we enter to search for. And I know that pretty well so I can usually find what I am looking for very quickly.

I have also learned over the years, how to ignore and cull out the extra "adware" search engines toss up.

Let's not forget, our ISPs can already see and record everything we do online anyway. And that is linked to our real names, street address and billing information. And read the fine print of your service agreement. Dollars to donuts says they share that with 3rd parties already. Yes, there's VPNs and other actions we can do to help protect our privacy. But odds are, that will incur a recurring monthly fee too.

And of course, our cell phone providers know everything we do on our cell phones including who we talk to, who we text with, our physical location to within a few feet, including the aisle of the store we are in, where we came from, the direction we are heading and how fast we are traveling. AND that is already linked to our real names, real addresses, phone number, and billing information.

So I have to wonder, unless I am involved in illegal activities I want to hide, what's the point?

One big thing I really do not like about Kagi is it requires us to register and make an account. While it claims it does not save our search history, how do we know that is true? And will remain true? Since they do force us to register and be logged in, it is NOT anonymous because the price plans keep track of the number of searches we make each month. 100 searches for the free account, 300 searches for the $5/month (unlimited for $10/month).

How do we know another company in the future won't make them an offer they can't refuse, then suddenly, the new owners know more about us than Google?

How do we know their system will not be hacked and all our information suddenly appears on the dark web?

Then of course, while $5/month is not a budget buster, it is yet another recurring bill. I already have monthly water, gas, sewer, trash, electric, insurance, house payment/escrow, phones, cable TV, Netflix and Internet. That doesn't even cover fuel for my truck, or food. Oh, and don't forget the monthly fee for the VPN.

Do I want yet another monthly bill? Nope. Do I really think Kagi is going provide any significant level of privacy considering how much exposure we already have? Nope.

Dont forget all of the convenience fees that come with paying all of those bills. In my area Cox charges me $3 fee to take the payment from my bank.

 

[95Viper]

Discuss the topic.

If you have a problem with Admin, staff or mods... PM a Super Moderator or Wizzard.

 

[AleXXX666]

LMFAO I'll better DONATE this $5/month to charity (animals, children) than pay the f..k a## for SEARCH, and as mentioned above, this isn't "private", and I don't know WHERE search is "getting worse"? If you try to find some illegal stuff thru Google/Bing, then this is OBVIOUSLY "getting worse", as these companies do filtrate stuff they show to public to protect their a##es from FBI etc.
Some specialized stuff like "industrial sh*t manufacturer in country XXX"? Ok, you can try all your loved "ChatGPT" and get exactly SAME crap you will find in "traditional" searches. Except you have "5 free searches a day" in your AI-sh*t, but in "traditional" searches you see ads but have unlimited searches. Your choice man.

Dont forget all of the convenience fees that come with paying all of those bills. In my area Cox charges me $3 fee to take the payment from my bank.

"user-friendly" banks have "monthly plan" already from ancient times, this time I'm better with paying ONCE than for every transaction lmfao

 

[R-T-B]

LMFAO I'll better DONATE this $5/month to charity (animals, children) than pay the f..k a## for SEARCH, and as mentioned above, this isn't "private", and I don't know WHERE search is "getting worse"? If you try to find some illegal stuff thru Google/Bing, then this is OBVIOUSLY "getting worse", as these companies do filtrate stuff they show to public to protect their a##es from FBI etc.
Some specialized stuff like "industrial sh*t manufacturer in country XXX"? Ok, you can try all your loved "ChatGPT" and get exactly SAME crap you will find in "traditional" searches. Except you have "5 free searches a day" in your AI-sh*t, but in "traditional" searches you see ads but have unlimited searches. Your choice man.


"user-friendly" banks have "monthly plan" already from ancient times, this time I'm better with paying ONCE than for every transaction lmfao

They are most likely referring not to blatantly illegal content, but to filtering of misinformation/overall fact checking. That's the usual gripe, and I can't personally grasp why you'd want provably false info, but meh.

Google hosts searches indexing plently of illegal content anyways so that point is pretty weak.

The legit reason for a commercial search would be privacy and ad-blocking rights, but that's all I can see. No, you and I won't pay for it, but you cannot deny there is a market.

 

[chrcoluk]

I don't know how many searches on DDG that I do each month. But 300 searches/month seems like a reasonable number to me. I dunno, I'll give it $5 when my trial runs out and see how often I actually run out. But I honestly don't expect that I'll eat all 300 every month.

Its nice in that there is something under the $10/month plan which starts feeling pricy to me. But $5/month is like a VM / droplet. Its really cheap as far as internet services go IMO. I mean, Fastmail is $50/year (a bit under $5/month) for email, for example. I guess I'm old enough to remember older email or other internet prices.

At first glance seems good but its the same as 10/day which doesnt seem a lot.

 

[dgianstefani]

They are most likely referring not to blatantly illegal content, but to filtering of misinformation/overall fact checking. That's the usual gripe, and I can't personally grasp why you'd want provably false info, but meh.

Google hosts searches indexing plently of illegal content anyways so that point is pretty weak.

The legit reason for a commercial search would be privacy and ad-blocking rights, but that's all I can see. No, you and I won't pay for it, but you cannot deny there is a market.

This is not all that is filtered.

Besides, even if it was. Who decides what is "misinformation"?

The corporation? The current US government (with their many lobbyists for each senator)? The popular political hot topic of the day? Do they have their own interests? Impartial and perfect judges that weigh all the evidence? What right does a search engine have to decide what you see? It's job is to show you the most relevant results. Relevant to the searcher, not their own special interests. Do Google, Microsoft and the rest have good track records of putting consumers first? Of being fair and unbiased arbiters of information? I'd say it's pretty clear that they do not.

When I search for something, I want to see relevant human written content (100% correct or otherwise, I'm capable of doing my own filtering, and don't need to be protected from opinions that differ from my own). I do not want to see pages and pages of whatever tripe Google's paying corporate customers are trying to sell me, whether it's products or ideas. Nor do I care for the pages offering "expert opinions" of bots, "AI", "fact checkers" (funded by special interest groups) or paid shills doing write ups for whoever their current sponsors are.

Everyone who's actually used Kagi, in my experience, had little bad to say about it, rather mentions it's refreshing to get decent search results.