I read the article, and nothing in there seems to be a valid criticism of Kagi as a search engine. It's all about the founder not understood GDPR, or how Kagi wasted money on free t-shirts, or the writers personal opinion on AI.
This is largely an opinion piece. It has merit as such, but please don't take this article as factual journalism.
I think the author makes that clear early and repeatedly and it isn't ever framed as anything else than a walk through their thought process. I'm surprised you even felt this comment necessary. The article anchors heavily on privacy as a focus, and if you don't care about that so much then all you have to worry about is a company that spends a couple hundred k of their startup money on t-shirts.
So...even if their search is perfect, and you don't care that they really just want to charge you for search while they use you to train their AI, it is a paid service, so criticism of their ability to manage money is valid as an overall product review too though.
I agree with you. I just felt it necessary to inform those that read comments and not the article itself. Especially because (here's my opinion) I feel that if you don't pay for a product, then you ARE the product. Even if Kagi isn't perfect, the payment model should be supported to foster this kind of internet.
I feel that if you don't pay for a product, then you ARE the product. Even if Kagi isn't perfect, the payment model should be supported to foster this kind of internet.
I agree with you, and I would just balance your statement out a bit and say that while the payment model should be supported, we should be wary of weak business models or predatory marketing that open up the door to just a different flavor of enshittification.