Kagi is kind of like Google in 2009, seriously good coverage, good ranking
... but also:
- more modern
- more features (summarizer, bangs like in DDG, FastGPT and probably a few I forgot)
- blocklists for websites (and also options to pin, raise and lower)
- with actual support: report a bug and you get an answer from a real engineer, a follow up when it is fixed and a shout out in the relevant release notes
- no tracking
If I were a rich man, I would probably keep my subscription just to support a Google competitor. Alas, I'm not, and so I'll be going back to Google.
Did you try blocking the problematic sites and if it didn't work, did you file support requests?
I didn't on support requests, either, perhaps I should. I have before, and the team did a great job at addressing what wasn't working.
Also, none of these accounts saying nice things appear to be bots or kagi-focused in any way, so I think it's safe to assume they do actually just like it.
Kagi has a free trial, but you have to pay, which is the difference between it and early Google.
Of course, now we have Google ads instead, so who knows, maybe not bots.
I am definitely not a bot.
I am however extremely fed up with Google. And equally thankful that I have found something that works as well as old Google (or better).
While these situations could be a pg-style astroturf submarine, or they could be satisfied customers (the best kind of advertising), I wouldn't necessarily say fishy (you can look at the satisfied users' previous contributions to make that judgment yourself! :)).
Personally, I've not used Kagi, but I hear positive things from people I trust that use it. So I'll likely try it in the future.
The alternative is Searx and I may try it sometimes, but so far Kagi is cheap and very efficient for me (C++ coding and other languages).