Kagi is a paid search engine providing excellent search that reminds me of what Google was like in the early 2000s. Furthermore, it provides search-enhancing features like specific filters, custom site rankings, and an LLM summary of the search results. In this post, I would like to share my thoughts on Kagi.com and explain why I think it is a great search engine despite recent criticism.

Search Quality

Kagi’s search quality is much superior to that of its competitors. The first few results usually include either links to the documentation or - if applicable - blog posts of tiny websites that are not well-known. Google has been overflooded by SEO spam: sites that do not contain any useful information but are optimized to be indexed high in search results. Kagi’s search results are much cleaner and more relevant.

If, for some reason, a bad site appears in the search results, I can easily block it. More relevant sites like Wikipedia or StackOverflow can be promoted to the top of the search results.

AI Summary

Kagi’s AI will summarize the search results by simply appending a ? to the end of the search query. LLMs are prone to generating nonsense, but Kagi’s AI adds citations with links to the original source. If the AI summary provided helpful information, it was accurate; if it did not, the results were still there.

Privacy

By default, since the search engine requires registration and payment, Kagi could theoretically track the user’s search history. However, I have no reason to believe that Kagi is doing this. Kagi repeatedly stated that they are a small company that aims to do things differently, i.e., not maximize profit over sustainability. That is also why they give free T-shirts to the first 20k users. Although I’m not convinced this is a wise business decision, I respect their commitment to their user base.

In recent criticism, Kagi’s CEO Vlad has made questionable privacy statements. Mainly, he claimed that an Email address is not PII (Personally Identifiable Information) because the user could create single-use Email addresses. That statement is obviously regrettable, but the CEO has clarified and will be more careful in the future. Just because a CEO is more outspoken and engaging with the community (which does not happen often - if ever) and sometimes says woeful things does not mean that the company as a whole should be boycotted. It should be seen as a way to engage with the company and perhaps improve it. Kagi is the best we have right now, and I am happy to support them.

This entire privacy discussion boils down to a big “trust me, bro” which I am willing to give Kagi - for now. I pay for search; at least I know that Kagi does not have to sell my data to keep the lights on - unlike specific competitors.

Conclusion

Kagi is a great search engine that I can recommend to anyone who is tired of Google’s SEO spam and wants to support a small company that is trying to do things differently. The search results are excellent, and the AI summaries are a nice addition. I am looking forward to seeing how Kagi will develop in the future.