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Comment by Spivak | Hacker News Reader

That's pretty much how all small search engines work, but with varying backing indexes. Kagi's value-add is Google quality index (since they literally pay for it), no ads, their ranking algorithm, and tools to control the results that Google doesn't give you like blacklists and your own weights.

$25/mo is unfortunately a little steep because their lower priced option with 700 searches/month is comically small. On just my work browser I have 4000 Google searches last month. Doesn't count my personal laptop or phone. It's really hard to compete with $0/mo. for Google + AdBlock. I really do like Kagi better but $25/mo. is Tailscale + Notion + Spotify.

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This. Kagi is a great product and has been my daily driver for nearly a year. I honestly believe it's the best search engine on the market

But I fear they're going to have to get their prices (and relatedly, cost per search) down considerably before I can recommend them to anyone again.

I was fortunate enough to be grandfathered into an unlimited plan until March, but I don't think I know any professionals, e.g. people using a search engine to get work done, which search less than 24 times per day.

I have the early adopter professional plan, but I must admit that while I consider myself very much a power user I have never been close to even 700 searches a month.

Can you walk me through what a typical search day is like for you?

To me, the 700 soft limit seems absurd so I'm curious to hear how you interact with the product.

I average 50-100 searches per work day and 10-20 searcher per off day (totalling 1-2.5k per month). But I don't feel I'm using search in a particularly strange way.

For example, if I need to know how the new WidgetBean in SpringBoot works I'll usually end up making ~10 queries related to it before I move on to a new area of research.

E.g., I'll search "SpringBoot WidgetBean release notes" then "SpringBoot WidgetBean examples" or "WidgetBean test double", "WidgetBean in MockMvc test", "WidgetBean PowerMock known issues in MockMvc test", "WidgetBean FooService interation in MockMvc test SpringBoot 3".

Essentially, when I'm searching I go wide to survey the information landscape, then refine my search term as I discover what I actually need to know

This quickly balloons as I'm expected to know many things at $dayjob :)

What does it look like when you search?

I'll try to get back with some numbers later today.

This month, sorry for the crazy date formatting, I copied it from the Kagi UI:

  Date (UTC) Searches
  Apr 28, 2023 23
  Apr 27, 2023 11
  Apr 26, 2023 24
  Apr 25, 2023 4
  Apr 24, 2023 18
  Apr 23, 2023 7
  Apr 22, 2023 1
  Apr 21, 2023 6
  Apr 20, 2023 7
  Apr 19, 2023 10
  Apr 17, 2023 18
  Apr 16, 2023 1
  Apr 15, 2023 14
  Apr 14, 2023 22
  Apr 13, 2023 7
  Apr 12, 2023 18
  Apr 11, 2023 11
  Apr 10, 2023 13
  Apr 9, 2023 4
  Apr 8, 2023 15
  Apr 7, 2023 7
  Apr 6, 2023 6
  Apr 5, 2023 7
  Apr 4, 2023 12
  Apr 3, 2023 19
  Apr 2, 2023 11
  Apr 1, 2023 15

The last few months:

  (UTC) Searches
  Apr 2023 311
  Mar 2023 495
  Feb 2023 313
  Jan 2023 434
  Dec 2022 386
  Nov 2022 396
  Oct 2022 425

How I search:

I typically start with one of the same type of queries as you did above, then I open every interesting-looking page from the first query in a nested tab (I use tree style tabs in my "research" browser) and start reading them, ctrl-clicking again to open interesting links in new tabs nested in a new level beneath, closing pages that was clearly useless and bookmarking in raindrop if I immediately sense that the oage I am on is something I will need again.

Once I have exhausted this tree, at least temporarily, I start a new search - like you do - in a new top level tab anf create a new tree from it.

As an early adopter, I reluctantly cancelled my Kagi plan today. It’s a great search engine, but even while just restricting it to one of my desktop machines and not using it on mobile at all, I ran up against the search limit with 10 days to go before renewal.

There is no search limit on Kagi. Do you mean you were not comfortable to pay 1.5 cents per search?

Well yeah because ballparking at somewhere around 7k monthly searches that would be a hundred dollar monthly bill or a two hundred dollar bill if I wanted API because team plans increase the search cost for some reason.

To be fair this is why the $25 plan exists but if the economics are to be believed is totally unsustainable. For me 1.5¢/search is a really awkward spot. Fixed cost unlimited and GPT cheap pricing of $0.000002/token hit "use without thinking" status but at 1.5/2.5¢ I could actually rack up a rather large bill by accident so it causes me to use the service less.

They do provide a "soft limit" (which you get a notification when you reach) and a "hard limit" (which the system won't let you exceed) as options in your billing settings. I think by default they set the hard limit to $5, precisely to stop people racking up large bills by accident.

Not OP, but… I don’t consider myself a “power user”, but as it turns out, I use search for nearly everything: reviews, code snippets, spelling, cafes, stores, apps, news, products, files… But, perhaps, the most common type of search is when you read a text or hear something and think: “Hey, what’s that?”

And so I easily make 50–100 searches per day when I don’t even feel I’m actively searching for anything. And if I'm in a research mode, the count goes beyond that.

I noticed that only after I’ve subscribed to Kagi. After realising that I’ll burn throw the plan’s allowance very quickly, I tried doing most of my “dumb” searches via Google, and more important stuff — via Kagi. But that introduces a cognitive load, and kills the point of using a paid search engine.

Perhaps, I should switch to the $25 plan, but I can’t justify paying $250–$300 annually for a search engine, even though I have nothing against the idea of paying for one. Unfortunately, it’s too much for me. Nevertheless, I’m rooting for Kagi because it ticks all the boxes for me, and provides value. I hope that operational costs go down, and more people could use it.

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