That was a huge wall of text - TLDR :

• Kagi has private investors
• Kagi has had some questionable uses of the private funding, such as opening a t-shirt company
• Kagi started as a AI focused company and pivoted to search
• Kagi is spread too thin over many different projects
• Kagi doesn't take privacy, or user data seriously

Fair enough, but as long as google, bing, ddg, etc get more and more unusable there will be fans of alternative searches

Even if Kagi crashes and burns, it has demonstrated there is a market demand for useful search results that users pay for directly.

FWIW I don't use Kagi because of the login / payment info requirements, so I agree broadly with the author. As bad as public searching is, its good enough to not give up privacy.

the CEO sealioning after the author asked them not to contact them anymore is a bit icky, too.

I had no faith to lose. Its a search engine sign into. How could that be private.

Kagi is one of the least trustworthy companies I've seen recently. I know it has fans, but it constantly talks out of both sides of its mouth.

Kagi does not give a solitary damn about privacy as the average person understands it.

Kagi lied in its emails.

"AI is mentioned zero times"

...is clearly incorrect.

There's quite a lot more to distrust about a company that wants to lock you into a filter bubble.

I enjoyed reading the article. To me, the perspective of the owner reminds me of the owners of Brave in that they are Libertarian in ways that seem aligned with mainstream views at a glance but the Venn diagram also overlaps with a disdain for regulation, while portraying a (potential) facade of being eternally infallible and trustworthy while also being a for-profit company.

Elon Musk also comes to mind in that his intelligence leaves him vulnerable to overlooking the nuances of conversations and alternative point of views. I think there's a general over reliance on artificial intelligence as a savior that will be fully embraced that will lead to large issues in the short/long term for Kagi.

Personally, it always felt a little bit like astroturfing hearing all of the kagi fanboys in every privacy thread, but for what it's worth, seeing them show up live In the flesh in this thread as well makes me feel a bit less like I'm talking to bots lol

Personally, I self-host my own version of searXng that only uses search engines that don't track my IP address. I'd say that those results are good enough 90% of the time, and when I need something more granular, I use a publicly hosted version of searXng that uses Google in its results

How can anyone worry about IP addresses when the search engine also knows your real world payment credentials? That and privacy don't really mix.

Wow, those unsolicited emails are icky

Am I the only one thinking Lori comes across as a bit of a dick here?

I am suspicious of anything I see being pushed as heavily as Kagi is pushed by it's alleged users.

TBH, OP sounds like a bit of an ~~entitled douche~~, edit: not the most appropriate descriptor, but I do think OP should try and look at the situation from another perspective.

In their blog post they complained about lack of transparency and noted numerous issues with Kagi that caused them to lose faith in the company. The CEO personally responds to explain themselves (i.e. make things more transparent) and OP sticks their fingers in their ears and acts liked they're a victim because the CEO attempts service recovery.

I've made public complaints about companies before. I wish I received such tailored and personalised responses.

I never had faith in Kagi. If anything gets shilled too much in a cultist manner, treat it like a red flag, no matter closed or FOSS.

Well that sucks... that vlad dude is ehm... weird. I am happy with the service I am getting from Kagi, but such behaviour is not acceptable...

I spun up a docker container for searxng

Successful CEOs need to learn to shut the fuck up.

Conflicted! Cory Doctorow just endorsed it & I’m way less smart than that person so i usually do what they say :\

Seems like people making people mistakes. Not anything horrific.

I enjoy kagi as a service that I've paid for, but yeah... stuff like this makes it hard to enjoy with a clear conscience.

I think the op already said this, but at least this shows that a product like this (with a little more focus, transparency, and integrity) could be sustainable.