Kagi plus a few good LLMs (I use local ones via ollama because I do that, and also Claude sometimes) gives you research capabilities that are as good as the pre-enshittification Internet and often better. I use LLMs like brainstorming partners and research assistants and then use Kagi to search for real data to verify results and make sure the LLMs aren't hallucinating.
Going back to Google I'm sometimes shocked at how absolute trash it is. I'm sure they're maximizing their internal KPIs.
Of course I know the real problem with Google is that I'm not the customer.