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LOL, LMAO: Inside the first 'SEO heist' of the AI era. Web2 is going great!
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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Helpful reminder to spread the word on Google alternatives this holiday season. Bought Kagi subscriptions as stocking stuffers for my loved ones. Everyone who I have convinced to give it a try has been impressed thus far.
SEO will pillage the commons. It has been for years and years. Community diversity and alternative payment models for search are part of the bulwark.
My personal conspiracy theory (not sure if I actually believe this yet):
The idea that people would use generative AI to make SEO easier (and thus make search engine results worse) was not an unfortunate side effect of generative AI, it was the entire purpose. It's no coincidence that OpenAI teamed up with Google's biggest rival in search engines; we're now seeing an arms race between tech giants using spambot generators to overwhelm the enemy's filters.
The decision to make chatGPT public was not about concern for openness (if it was they would have made the earlier versions of GPT public too), it's more that they had a business partner lined up and Google search had become enshittified enough that they thought they could pull off a successful "disruption".
huh, the same folks in my life who were wrong about me regretting paying for email (protonmail) will love this
kagi looks interesting and I like their design compared with DuckDuckGo, but the usable tier seems to include a bit of AI crap I don’t want. is the AI shit opt-in (including their use of my data), and does it seem unlikely they’ll enshittify in the future?
You can read their blog about the AI-crap, in terms of their approach and philosophy. In general, it is optional and not part of the major experience.
The main reason I use kagi is immediately obvious from doing seaches. I convinced my wife to switch to it when she ask, "ok but what results does it show when I search sailor moon?" and she saw the first page (fan sites, official merch, fun shit she had forgotten about for years).
What you need to know is that you pay money, and they have to give you results that you like. It's a whole different world.
fuck I am tempted… maybe I’ll try the limited tier (which also omits the LLM stuff!) and if I hit the limit, it’s a sign I’m at least getting use out of it
Kagi has definitely been given too much UX treatment to cut through the bullshit and just say "you pay because it is better"
this text on their pricing page is pretty eyerolly:
Gonna give it a shot tho :)
The AI stuff is entirely optional. I've been using Kagi for about four months and I forgot it exists. I haven't been nudged to use it even once. I think they're just buying AI service from someone else, not training their own.
So far they've been good about remembering they're providing a search experience as their product and not chasing shiny tech press objects. I find it does a consistently good job of just finding what you tell it to and otherwise just getting out of your way, which is honestly all I want a search engine to do.
Also meta but while I am big on slamming AI enshitification, I am still bullish on using machine learning tools to actually make products better. There are examples of this. Notice how artists react enthusiastically to the AI features of Procreate Dreams (workflow primarily built around human hand assisted by AI tools, ala what photoshop used to be) vs Midjourney (a slap in the face).
The future will involve more AI products. It's worthy to be skeptical. It's also worthy to vote with your money to send the signal: there is an alternative to enshitification.