Kagi Introducing Fair Pricing

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FWIW - most mobile data plans roll over if you don't use them fully during the month.

(at least where I live)

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Are you referring to using Yandex?

I think they did explain that implementing turn off and on of specific engines per user is a complete rewrite of their querying system, so it is an expensive and complex change.

Removing yandex is OTOH not a great move as results in Russian language often come from there. Also morally I would generally agree, but then - especially now - you could argue about "giving money to US companies", and that means they need to shut down, they can't use bing, google, yandex.

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I'm fine. I feel like I'm arguing with a secret Kagi operative here.

I haven't considered that they might be a healthy business but you seem to know a lot more than I do about it....

Please, keep sharing what you don't know about Kagi

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Kagi is rolling this out to people who never use their service. So that would be equivalent to you paying your mobile provider and never making a phone call or text for an entire month.

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I must have missed that, can you explain what you mean by that?

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After nearly a year of Kagi. It's actually painful when I'm on a device with just Google.

Would recommend if you are a knowledge worker or researcher, or just in a technical field.

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They specifically avoid sanctions by routing payments through Kazakhstan, and tried to claim Yandex wasn't even a russian company when called out.

And no, the US is not the same. You might not have hosted Ukrainian refugees or be in full understanding of what's happening there but any money going into Russia is right now used for torture, rape and killing of Ukrainians.

I had a Kagi family subscription and immediately cancelled when I learnt about Vlad's "it's just some geopolitical opinions" stance. I also know others have done the same.

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I need per search pricing. Their plan includes way too many searches and is way too expensive. I use it like 2-3 times a month.

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I also liked the part where they decided they don't need to pay the VAT.

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And yet I had to pay $12.10 for my $10 Kagi subscription...

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My wife is Ukrainian. I will leave it at that.

I have also a colleague from Afghanistan, for example, guess what their opinion is (and the list could be long, I just happen to have a colleague from there).

I remember Yandex being brought up during the Brave debacle, and I don't remember them claiming anything of the sort. I think they simply stated the position that choosing search providers based on moral claims would simply lead to them being able to use only the niche search providers.

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This old blog post summarises a lot of pain points:
https://d-shoot.net/kagi.html

Similar to Brave (and more recently Proton) I simply can't trust them, despite liking the idea of their respective services.

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I'm sure she would find equivocating the US with Russia very reasonable

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I am repeating data points they shared during the community event.

BTW buddy, you can cool it with the passive-aggressiveness. Not everyone on the internet is out to get you.

The info about them breaking even at 25k was shared in the discord channel (which I very rarely look). The rest are stats that are published on their website and as I said shared during the yearly community event.

I work in tech, and I would be blind to acknowledge that a company which:

is profitable/breaks even after few years of operation
does that with 25k users
doesn't have a marketing budget (used to, now they might have a ridiculously small one).

Might be a healthy business, different from 99% of tech companies that generally bleed money even with millions of users.

You seem completely sure of the opposite, whatever, don't use their service lol

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I've been searching for an alternative search engine. Found Searx to be subpar.

Was thinking about Kagi, but if they work with the russians, that's an immediate no go for me.

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She doesn't, but that's my whole point: it's a personal perspective. If you ask a person from Palestine, Vietnam, many places in South America, Yemen, Iraq, etc. their gripes would be different from my own, which as an Italian are different already from my wife's etc.

So which moral claims do you accommodate? The obvious answer is everyone's, by allowing each user to choose where indirectly give money. However this is apparently technically hard, so either you shut down or you simply decide that you can't accommodate any, and make good in other areas (I.e. through privacy-preserving services).

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Do you use any other search engine?

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You can cool it with accusing me of being passive-aggressive, I think I've been completely fair to you. You can definitely not call me 'buddy', and you can stop acting like a victim here.

You have to agree that it's strange that you're putting so much energy into something you don't have a monetary interest in. This is very unusual behavior for some random dude on the internet. You must see that. You don't seem stupid, but you definitely seem incentivized.

So let's both acknowledge that you're getting paid to do this and that I'm not.

I also work in tech. I'm not sure why you'd be working so hard for a company that you claim isn't paying you. You're worth more than this homeboy.

So, I'm going to assume that you are working for them. Wouldn't you? So please, again, tell me everything you think you know about Kagi. I'm really curious.

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Vlad wrote it to me in their chat. Screenshot here: https://ioc.exchange/@troed/113311981054448887

Ask your wife whether she thinks people should send money to Russia. Now, Yandex is politically twisting the truth in their search results, but I care less about that than the fact that I'll happily send money to Ukraine but there's no way in hell I'm sending money to Russia.

Being a Kagi subscriber means you are. Morally - I'm not ok with it. In some nations it might even be against the law. Sanctions, you know. I'm not even sure Kagi is legally in the clear here.

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Let me explain it to you:

first comment with meta-statements about down votes (I didn't downvote, but still shows the tone)
one comment in: "how many figures you get"
two comments in: "I feel like I am talking with a secret operative".

Now, you might think everyone is stupid, but it doesn't take that much that all these statements are passive aggressive and they are a way to insinuate your interlocutor is arguing in bad faith or for ulterior motives.

so much energy into something you don't have a monetary interest in

I don't agree. First because it's little effort, if any. I am right now taking a dump and tapping on my phone.
Second, by the same logic your commitment would show also financial incentive? So are you paid by Google to smear competitors?

I instead think that we are simply commenting on stuff that we are interested in. I want kagi to succeed, of course, and I do because it's a great product but much more importantly because I want their business model to succeed. I want more and more companies adopting it and stop thinking that fucking over users is the only way to make money. From this perspective, sure, I am invested because I want a healthy tech industry which works for humans and their rights.

Not that I have to justify anything anyway.

BTW, if you start every conversation with the mindset that "everyone who disagrees with me must be paid by whom I am accusing", I hardly think you can consider yourself fair. As I said, using your own logic I need to assume you work for Google or Microsoft and are paid by them to smear competitors.

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Kagi Introducing Fair Pricing