I was using ecosia for awhile since the ads support conservation efforts but I wasn't particularly happy with the results or the ads so I'm trying out
kagi, a paid search engine. So far I'm liking it, though I'm not sure most would feel like it justified the $5-$10 a month
This is what I did as well. Been paying for Kagi for close to a year. I preferred it over Ecosia, because Bing doesn't let Ecosia use all of the features of Bing, like inline results, quick answers, etc. Or at least that's what they said before I made the switch. And while I certainly appreciate the conservation efforts, I realized that I personally didn't want to support the ad industry, and I could find other ways to support conservation.
Having the option to block domains from results, or prioritize some domains is nice. The instant I see one of those AI / SEO farm sites, it gets an immediate block. I have Wikipedia results pinned, and Reddit as a raised result (so you don't have to do the " + Reddit" some people do with other search engines). Plus, the results just feel so much cleaner most of the time, as there's no ads or promoted results anywhere, so I never have the feeling that I'm being pushed a result for a financial gain. The one downside of Kagi for me is that their own indexer prioritizes smaller sites, blogs, substacks, etc. And I've noticed a number of those results are more likely to be a bit conspiratorial? But, regardless, I just block that domain and move on. And I do appreciate it can surface those smaller sites sometimes, instead of always forcing me into a corporate controlled platform every time.
