Jottings on an Envelope
July 28th, 2024

End of Search

I have been using Kagi as my default search for almost a month. Today, I ran out of the 100 searches that Kagi provided me to try the system.

Kagi search notification reminding me to upgrade
Kagi Search Reminder


As much as I have loved my experience with Kagi, I don't think I will upgrade to the starter plan even if they have given me enough reasons to. Yet. Don't get me wrong—Kagi was a good search engine. It did its job well—listing the web pages relevant to my search and getting the hell out of the way. What I keep asking myself, though, is if that is enough for me to pay for a search engine.

My problem with Kagi is that there is just not enough differentiation. It does search well, but so does DuckDuckGo—or at least I remember it doing a search fine. Why, then, should I pay for something that I already have a free, private option for? In the absence of DDG, Kagi would have been the default choice. It is not anymore.

Does it mean I am done with Kagi? Well, who knows? But here's the thing—only a better search quality will make me switch. And given the nature of my job, I will know soon.