My memory is fuzzy on what I used way back in the day like this. One was a meta-search engine across general engines (eg Google) and specialized engines. It had boolean operators to let me drill into the search. I think it was Turbosearch.
Regardless, I wanted features like that on top of Google, Bing, etc. It could be free and ad supported with a user focus like DuckDuckGo.
Also, a Kagi vs DuckDuckGo comparison might be more fair than Kagi vs Google since DDG is still serving the users despite being ad driven.
Yeah that was one I was thinking of. I didn't know it was more recent, it feels like ages ago. But also altavista, it was very customer centric, though it was free. But it was basically just a demonstration of digital's expertise and it did feel like they wanted it to serve the customer as well as possible.
And I thought DuckDuckGo had plans for a paid search experience at some point.
But now that in think of it I'm not so sure, sorry. Sorry for positing incorrect info.
Regardless, I wanted features like that on top of Google, Bing, etc. It could be free and ad supported with a user focus like DuckDuckGo.
Also, a Kagi vs DuckDuckGo comparison might be more fair than Kagi vs Google since DDG is still serving the users despite being ad driven.