I don’t remember when I started using Google. Google just… is. It’s the verb for internet search, it commands 10 times the market share of all its competitors combined, and it is responsible for routing a huge amount of the internet’s traffic.

Almost two years ago, I got out. I signed up for a search engine called Kagi, which charges $10 a month and, in return, promises better search results, no ads, no data collection, and lots of advanced features. I’ve tried a lot of search engines and always ended up back with Google — the results elsewhere just felt somehow worse. This time, whether it’s because Kagi is great or Google is declining or both, I’ve felt no drop-off whatsoever.

I’m still using Kagi, and it’s hard to imagine switching back. It’s now Google that looks bizarre and unfamiliar every time I open it. As Google has become more visual, more chaotic, and consistently less good at simply finding the things I’m looking for, Kagi has stayed simple and straightforward. It is a page full of links, and they’re usually the right ones.

Kagi, as a product, is about three years old, but the company has been around since 2018. It was started by Vladomir P …

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