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0 pointsdmd3h ago0 comments

I really really really really want to love Kagi, but every time I try it (and I just spent a month trying it, ending a week or so ago), I end up back at Google, finding that my search results are better.

I think the reason is my searches are almost entirely long-tail searches that Kagi's index just isn't good enough for. I am never searching for something like "best mattress" or anything else that is heavily SEO'd - it's always something very specific - so the result page in Google looks pretty much exactly like the Kagi page, only it nearly always has the result I'm looking for where Kagi's doesn't.

0 comments

niam3h ago

Interesting. Many times I find the opposite case, where my long tail search on Kagi will turn up SOME stuff that's kind of pertinent to the subject, and I'll swap to Google to see if the results are better there, only for it to barely have anything pertinent.

The main issue I've had with Kagi is that using "before:" and "after:" just seems weirder than it does on Google, and will throw in some stuff that's visibly outside the ranges I selected sometimes.

dawnerdnew21m ago

Recently even searching for things like best xyz on Kagi has been nothing but ai sites in the results. Seems their stop slop project failed.

I still use and recommend Kagi but the results have gotten worse, but I also think that’s just an indicator of the health of the web as a whole.

feedyourhead2h ago

> my searches are almost entirely long-tail searches

any chance you have an example of such searches off the top of your head that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

dmdOP2h ago

Not the greatest example because they both do find me, but here's an example of where Kagi is supposed to be better at precisely this, but isn't. Search without quotes for daniel drucker mclean.

That's me, and Google correctly on the first page finds ONLY pages related to me.

Kagi pollutes the page with many results for my doppelgänger, the much more famous Daniel J Drucker of the University of Toronto, even though none of those results mention mclean.

That is literally the thing Kagi was supposed to be better at - actually respecting your search terms instead of thinking it knows better!

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