[JonathanBuchh]

I’ve also been using https://kagi.com for the past couple of days and have found the search results to be unparalleled to both Google and DuckDuckGo. I haven’t come across any SEO spam and the results seem to be of better quality overall. They have all of the same bangs DDG uses and get results from Bing, Google, and a bespoke index. Because they query Bing and Google, it will be pretty expensive when it launches (it's in private beta) since it costs $12 per 1000 queries, but since search is so important, it will probably be worth it. They say they're privacy focused too, but it's hard to be sure when a product isn't open source.

Kagi isn't trying to take significant market share from Google or DDG, but find a niche (probably Hacker News type people). The one thing I find they're lacking is maps and location based results (e.g. you can't search for "lunch near me"). If you're interested, I'd recommend checking out their FAQ: https://kagi.com/faq

[antihero]

Hmm, annoyingly some bloody invite based thing instead of just being able to try the damn thing. What is this, 2004?

[littlecranky67]

Just tried and it seems we have an underdog here that could be useful to avoid spammy results. I can totally see why they want this to be invite only, as they probably need to find out how to scale well. If it would go viral suddenly, they might not collapse and the whole effect would backfire.

Edit: This is really promising and interesting. They show a summary of the link when you hover over the crystal ball icon next to it, together with a button for "Block" and "Boost" - i.e. you can vote with your account. These metrics could be used for ranking and kill affiliate marketers.

[omnicognate]

I'm on the waitlist. AIUI they intend this to be a paid service eventually, which is highly desirable to me. If it can be made to work, I would very much like a search service that is directly paid for by its users, rather than funded via side channels such as advertising or paid results placement that create skewed incentives.

If they're not ready to charge for use yet, a limited preview makes more sense than a public free service.

[fallat]

Signed up; I will gladly pay for better results. Google has sold its soul long ago to the capitalism gods. DDG and Brave are no better.

[u2077]

They also have a browser that’s still in beta. Here’s the direct link to test flight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/DeC8ZDnu (got this after a month on the waitlist)

[kajiryoji]

Can you be very kind to provide the Mac browser link as well? It seems this link is only valid for ios and iPadOS apps

[eproxus]

Apparently their invite, once you receive it, is free to share with anyone. Enjoy:

https://kagi.com/signup?invite_code=adfreesearchengine

[Melatonic]

Might be a limit on the number of users - this link now gets an "expired" message after attempting to signup. Anybody else have one I can try?

[freediver]

It is in closed, invite-only beta.

[technofiend]

Signed up for the beta, but their signup page has one annoyance... clicking back doesn't take you back one page in the signup process, it ejects you to the top but your answers are saved. Fine if it's an honest mistake, weird if it's an aesthetic choice, not a good idea if it's an indicator of how they plan to be different. It would be much better to prove how smart they are by fixing google's search than "fixing" well-established UI patterns.

[Melatonic]

How long did you have to wait for the invite?

[Semaphor]

2 days in my case