Kagi
Plenty for users Stage 1
Kagi flips the search business model: you pay, so there are no ads, no tracking, and no incentive to keep you on the results page. Users can boost, block, or pin sites, which ranking incentives at ad-funded engines never allow. The company is user-funded rather than venture-backed, which removes the usual pressure to monetize attention. Small and paid, but a genuinely good deal. Stage 1.
- Since
- 2022
- Function
- Search
- VC-backed
- No
- Public
- No
Rating checklist
The stage follows from these criteria under the published method. Extraction and decline count only with a dated source from the last 3 years.
- Alignment 1 of 3
-
- A1 Paid for without surveillance
- Lock-in 0 of 4
- None
- Extraction 0 of 7
- None
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result: An alignment criterion, no lock-in, and at most one extraction criterion, so stage 1.
News signals
More in Search
-
Bing
3Microsoft’s search layer—often a conduit into Copilot, Edge defaults, and Windows integration rather than neutral retrieval.
-
DuckDuckGo
1Privacy-marketed search with lighter tracking; still a business that must fund results and experiments over time.
-
Google Search
4Once best-in-class retrieval; now cluttered with SERP features, ads, and SEO sludge—users get the residual junk.
