Not a technical person, as I understand it, Google and Bing are full search engines while options like Seaexng, Ecosia, Duckduckgo are meta search engine that depend on Google or Bing. Are there other search engines that are fully independent, and if there aren’t, what are the barriers that stop other search engines from emerging

  • Schwim Dandy@piefed.zipEnglish
    23·
    3 days ago

    Kagi has independent indexes.

    Kagi Search Sources( source ):

    Kagi is known for delivering a unique flavor of high-quality search results, sourced from our own web index (internally named “Teclis”) and news index (internally named “TinyGem”). Kagi’s indexes provide distinctive results that help you discover non-commercial websites and engage with “small web” discussions surrounding a particular topic.

    We don’t stop there; we are always trying new things to surface relevant, high-quality results. For example, we recently launched the Kagi Small Web initiative, which showcases content from personal blogs and discussions around the web. Discovering high-quality content written without the motive of financial gain gives Kagi’s search results a unique flavor and makes it feel more humane to use.

    Our search results also include anonymized API calls to all major search result providers worldwide, specialized search engines like Marginalia, and sources of vertical information such as Wolfram Alpha, Apple, Wikipedia, Open Meteo, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other APIs. Typically, every search query on Kagi will call a dozen or so different sources simultaneously, all with the purpose of bringing the best possible search results to the user in a split second.

    Our unique algorithms down-rank pages with a lot of ads and trackers (which we have found correlate with a decrease in content quality) and promote content from independent, ad-free sources and personal websites. This ensures that Kagi shows results that delight users and are worth paying for. Subscriptions from our members pay for search results, allowing Kagi to remain ad-free and 100% privacy-respecting.

    • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      3 days ago

      Yeah. I just… it costs too much. I can’t justify it, even though I tried. It should be 1000/mo. for $3. That I would pay.

      • blitzen@lemmy.ca
        19·
        3 days ago

        I think part of why the internet sucks now is we’ve grown accustomed to too much for free.

        The $10 I spend on Kagi is the best subscription I have, and one of the only ones I still keep.

      • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
        16·
        3 days ago

        Your search engine in a very real way is your internet. Nearly everything you see online starts there.

        If you aren’t paying for it, someone else is. And the reason they’re paying, is to make sure you get the internet they want; Not the one you want. If you want the internet to be what you want, you have to be the one to pay for it.

        I don’t know where you live, but in most of the developed world $10 is roughly the cost of a single lunch. Not even a fancy one. What’s worth more to you? An inexpensive lunch? Or making sure the internet you see in your search, is what you want to see, instead of what someone else wants you to see?

        • AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyzEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          QFT right here. I just started using Kagi this month after being very impressed by the trial period. The $5/month starter plan gives an average of 10 searches per day. It doesnt seem like much but that’s a decent amount of searching for my personal use case. Truth be told I’ll probably end up going for the family plan at $20/month. Up to six users with unlimited search for less than a Netflix subscription.

      • br3d@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 days ago

        I think the best model would be that you top up an account and pay some small amount per search. That’s also a bit more transparent, and directly linked to use