this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
99 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37739 readers
656 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I live in a country which uses a language I don't speak but Google defaults to regional results in spite of my language being set to English. All other engines give me really poor results (not that Google was giving good ones, the image search has really gone to shit since they started populating it with AI stuff).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had never heard of Kagi before; I'll need to look into it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think you can have a search engine that indexes the entire internet without monetization some direction: either as a set of eyeballs for an advertisement engine masquerading as a web search index, or as a subscriber. So, don't be surprised they ask for money dollars! It's ok if the maths don't add up for you, though. For me, it's nice being able to pay for something I use and know that that is the explicit relationship we have. I get pissy when it's suggested as free but the cost is my attention, but maybe you don't work that way and that's ok too :D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understand that it's a lot of work but I'm sorry, a starting plan of $5 per month is WAY to much. I'll just use searxng.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sure, if that makes sense for you go for it. To me, 60$ a year is a single pizza delivery, so it seems foolish for me to worry too much about it when it's something I need consistent use of throughout the day, every day. I find a good search engine way more essential than a tv streaming service, so it really is a no brainer for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

True. I'm definitely not their target audience. SearXNG is great bc if configured right I get great results that aren't too cluttered. I'd rather have it hosted by someone I can trust (a friend of a friend runs the instance I use) and not have to worry about it. I'm not against payed services but I do hate subscriptions except for when they're truly necessary.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can completely get behind paying for a service if that means the service works and is better than all the other ones. I'll at least try it out. Personally, I'd probably prefer if I could pay for a certain number of searches (like pay for a 1000 searches with 20 bucks) instead of the subscription model. I'm glad that there's an ad-free search service though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They were working toward adding some billing flavors like that but it's unclear if it was like a prepaid cellphone or just a "for a sub you get X minutes a month" kinda deal (continuing the analogy). I'm grandfathered into the infinite searches that I've never used all that much of so I haven't really paid any serious attention to it, just kinda peripherally somewhat-aware :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, right now they offer 100 free searches and then 5 bucks a month capping out at 300 searches, along with other tiers. Would much prefer it to be more like a prepaid cellphone, and just buy searches... or maybe have the searches roll over to the next month lol. I'll still try the free searches, but it would be nice to throw money at the thing instead of having the stress of yet another subscription service to remember to cancel if I stop using it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I pay for Kagi annually if it helps. I get bogged down with the monthlys too. They also do a pay as you go for when you go over your plans limit: image of pay per use config