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> What do they care how many employees Kagi has or how much they spend on t-shirts. Spending a third of your round on t-shirt manufacturing equipment is possib

> What do they care how many employees Kagi has or how much they spend on t-shirts. Spending a third of your round on t-shirt manufacturing equipment is possibly not the best sign of the focused leadership that will bring your company success in a difficult market.

yreg 2y ago
True, but what do I as a customer care? It's not like I'm building some business on their APIs or anything. If they go down, I will switch to another search engine… no need to do so preemptively from my PoV.
- mbStavola 2y ago
  Because "going down" doesn't necessarily mean _shutting_ down-- it could be a sale as well. Considering the stated attitude towards privacy, that should worry you if privacy is your concern.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    All search engines are problematic in terms of privacy.
    - mbStavola 2y ago
      One of the main selling points of Kagi is privacy. It's featured on the main landing page, they have a page dedicated to it, and it's mentioned in pretty much every sales pitch they will make. Kagi's audience is also comprised of people who have that value as paying for a search engine means divesting from adtech surveillance. So, it does not matter that "all search engines are problematic in terms of privacy"-- this one is marketed to not be. That's why people have concerns about how serious they're taking that committment and why people would hold them to a higher standard. It's also why a sale to a company which does not respect privacy is potentially a major issue, especially if current customer data isn't being handled in the manner they had expected.
      - JohnFen 2y ago
        Sure, I get that. I'm one of the more privacy-sensitive people you're likely to meet. The complaint is about the marketing for sure. But that's not so different from the other "privacy-oriented" engines I'm aware of. I'm not saying Kagi is (or is not, I don't know) being a good actor here. I'm just saying that if you want to use a search engine at all, you're effectively having to choose the lesser of evils. Kagi may not be a saint, but since there aren't better options, I'm willing to settle with a search engine that actually gives me useful search results and isn't totally egregious on privacy issues.
- laborcontract 2y ago
  It you want to know when Evernote went downhill, it’s precisely the moment they started selling backpacks.
  - HWR_14 2y ago
    Every tech company I've ever seen has had free t-shirts to give out at some point. While I don't think it was a smart use of limited funds, it's certainly not a major pivot to physical products like Evernote.

yreg 2y ago

True, but what do I as a customer care? It's not like I'm building some business on their APIs or anything. If they go down, I will switch to another search engine… no need to do so preemptively from my PoV.

mbStavola 2y ago
Because "going down" doesn't necessarily mean _shutting_ down-- it could be a sale as well. Considering the stated attitude towards privacy, that should worry you if privacy is your concern.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  All search engines are problematic in terms of privacy.
  - mbStavola 2y ago
    One of the main selling points of Kagi is privacy. It's featured on the main landing page, they have a page dedicated to it, and it's mentioned in pretty much every sales pitch they will make. Kagi's audience is also comprised of people who have that value as paying for a search engine means divesting from adtech surveillance. So, it does not matter that "all search engines are problematic in terms of privacy"-- this one is marketed to not be. That's why people have concerns about how serious they're taking that committment and why people would hold them to a higher standard. It's also why a sale to a company which does not respect privacy is potentially a major issue, especially if current customer data isn't being handled in the manner they had expected.
    - JohnFen 2y ago
      Sure, I get that. I'm one of the more privacy-sensitive people you're likely to meet. The complaint is about the marketing for sure. But that's not so different from the other "privacy-oriented" engines I'm aware of. I'm not saying Kagi is (or is not, I don't know) being a good actor here. I'm just saying that if you want to use a search engine at all, you're effectively having to choose the lesser of evils. Kagi may not be a saint, but since there aren't better options, I'm willing to settle with a search engine that actually gives me useful search results and isn't totally egregious on privacy issues.
laborcontract 2y ago
It you want to know when Evernote went downhill, it’s precisely the moment they started selling backpacks.
- HWR_14 2y ago
  Every tech company I've ever seen has had free t-shirts to give out at some point. While I don't think it was a smart use of limited funds, it's certainly not a major pivot to physical products like Evernote.