Two years with Kagi, sometimes go months without using Google. Stay pure.
Kagi plus a few good LLMs (I use local ones via ollama because I do that, and also Claude sometimes) gives you research capabilities that are as good as the pre-enshittification Internet and often better. I use LLMs like brainstorming partners and research assistants and then use Kagi to search for real data to verify results and make sure the LLMs aren't hallucinating.
Going back to Google I'm sometimes shocked at how absolute trash it is. I'm sure they're maximizing their internal KPIs.
Of course I know the real problem with Google is that I'm not the customer.
When I install Linux on a new computer, I install Firefox from its package manager, log in with Firefox Sync, and this switches my default search engine to Kagi. So I never once visit Google, not even to download Firefox.
I just tried going to Google, and it is simultaneously satisfying and saddening to be met with a cookie disclaimer pop-up: Saddening because I'm reminded that ubiquitous search access comes at the cost of tracking, and satisfying because I never once visited Google on this one-year old computer (after which the pop-up disappears).
Just be aware that Google runs a lot of other integral services that hoover up data anyway and are practically unavoidable for modern life. For example, I blocked all domains including google and I was then unable to use local rent listing websites, unable to comment on forums, and unable to browse university research publication lists, because they were captcha blocked. In fact one of the only upsides of Apps I see is that they tend to avoid captchas.
They fail in a nasty way too - nobody expects you to block them - so you'll simply see blank pages, etc. Likewise for Firebase which it seems 40% of startups use.
Kagi plus a few good LLMs (I use local ones via ollama because I do that, and also Claude sometimes) gives you research capabilities that are as good as the pre-enshittification Internet and often better. I use LLMs like brainstorming partners and research assistants and then use Kagi to search for real data to verify results and make sure the LLMs aren't hallucinating.
Going back to Google I'm sometimes shocked at how absolute trash it is. I'm sure they're maximizing their internal KPIs.
Of course I know the real problem with Google is that I'm not the customer.