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Comment by kelvie | Hacker News Reader

Disclaimer: Happy paid kagi user for over a year now.

Why would they offer this for free for small websites? This isn't some VC-backed company getting ready to data-mine us and collect users for enshittification purposes, and in general, Kagi is the site people recommend when they say "if you're not the customer, you're the product".

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My take is this helps them index the web, and they're particularly interested in small website with great, niche, organic content.

See also: https://kagi.com/smallweb

I've had the same thoughts on those. Maybe it also allows them to gather data on whether/how people interact with a webpage itself, which may be an indicator for its quality.

Yes! It tells them what people search for on that particular website… all very valuable data.

Hmm I’d like to hear more from Kagi on this. They make a point of not logging searches by their subscribers. If this widget is available to non-subscribers outside of Kagi.com, do the same privacy-first principles apply?

Maybe because they can comfortably afford to? Maybe because some people who operate businesses are actually kind and generous? Maybe because this service doesn't cost them much to operate for "small/personal websites"? Maybe because it's a clever way to get more people to pay for the service in the long run, after they initially try it out for free?

Because their main business is taking content ranking it and charging you for it. This allows them to discover sites cheaper in a more targeted way. It increases awareness of kagi. It's a win/win idea.

Don't mistake Kagi for something it's not. You are still the product. All of your data is feed into the system (what you search for, what you rank, what you filter etc) and used to sell others.

I would not really count using a paid, relatively expensive service as "you are the product" which is usually used if a free service is subsidized by selling access to the users to a third party.

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