Search engine quality is deteriorating at an unprecedented rate. Every search engine now has AI built in. DuckDuckGo is not as intrusive as alternatives. The search results are usually okay, unless it gets specific. I have to append “Reddit” to most of queries once the search becomes slightly technical. Searches have to be rerun a couple of times with modifications even to find mildly relevant answers.

Top of the results are always the same websites depending on the topic. However, they’re not what I’m looking for. Most of them contain SEO spam or AI slop. This is only exacerbated by the omnipresence of AI everywhere.

I keep taking a look at Kagi, but the price is really steep. 10 bucks for search is crazy. What’s more, it would all be tied to my real identity. I effectively can’t use it within a private tab and there’s no proper way to set it as my default search engine either since their extension is required to use on Safari at least. I don’t want more extensions that make me stand out even more than I do.

I would’ve switched from DuckDuckGo to another search engine, but the only usable indexes are Bing, Google, and Brave. Bing’s UI is junk, Google’s search results are abhorrent among other things these days, and Brave is not much better than DuckDuckGo while having all of its downsides in addition to much more invasive AI.

That’s what keeps me peaking a little at Kagi every now and then to see if they have addressed any of my complaints. They haven’t. 🥰