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submitted 10 months ago by flumph@programming.dev to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml

"Should we not be buying VW, BMW, Siemens and Bayer technology and products today because they participated in holocaust and directly collaborated with Hitler?" -- CEO of Kagi when given feedback re: Brave partnership

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[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 54 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

their CEO also moderates the discussion on Kagi's Discord. he's been removing criticism by queer folks, while - the last time I've checked before I've left their group - keeping replies like "stop shoving LGBTQ down our throats".

https://nyan.lol/@zicklepop/111716138453426218

edit: also their response regarding a request to add a "don't do it" widget to suicide searches basically boils down to "but if we make a moral choice now, we'll have to do more moral choices in the future!", which is... suboptimal. https://kagifeedback.org/d/865-suicide-results-should-probably-have-a-dont-do-that-widget-like-google/

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 27 points 10 months ago

Ah fuck, I've been using Kagi but of course their CEO is a reich-wing asshat.

Anybody know of any other options? I'm not going back to Google.

[-] Brutticus@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

Ive been having pretty good time with searxng

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Are you self-hosting or using a public instance?

[-] Aradia@lemmy.ml 11 points 10 months ago

It's much better is you use a public instance as your results will be harder to be tracked: https://searx.space/ choice your favorite one here

[-] Sheeple@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

DuckDuckGo is honestly a reliable one

[-] flora_explora@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

Maybe not too helpful, but I've been using startpage for years now and it still seems like the best option for me. It is google-based but at least private.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'd like to specifically avoid using straight-up Google as a source, proxied or not. Most of the smaller engines do seem to use Google for at least a part of their results, but for me that's preferable to having to completely rely on it since the results are mostly not very good

[-] Deceptichum@kbin.social 27 points 10 months ago

Was thinking about biting the bullet and getting Kagi, but this is sign enough not to let alone the OP.

[-] lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago

Same here. Looks like I'll be staying with DDG for a while yet.

[-] dmnknf@lemmy.ml 12 points 10 months ago

Wow, this topic in the edit is bad, and I wasn't aware of it. Just canceled my subscription. Now I have until 14/01 to choose an alternative.

[-] Aradia@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago
[-] natecox@programming.dev 11 points 10 months ago

God damn it.

I am a paying subscriber to Kagi because the search results are excellent and there are no ads, so of course you show me a thread on “we should maybe add a small message to suicidal users telling them there is help for them” which then reads like a truth-social propaganda thread, filled to the brim with “helping people is a slippery slope!!!! muh freedoms!!” arguments.

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[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 11 points 10 months ago

These people are obsessed with things being shoved down throats

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

the FOMO is real

[-] HeavyRaptor@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

Reading about the suicide thing: I might try kagi again this year. This is the exact type of software I want. It should only perform its intended function (returning relevant results to any query) and not try to influence me into following someone else's moralisations.

[-] hersh@literature.cafe 2 points 10 months ago

As a Kagi subscriber, I've been very happy with their transparency in general. The feedback site is open to the public and Vlad and other staff members regularly engage in conversation about possible future features, limitations, and even business decisions in the Discord. It's been refreshing.

...which makes the response to this issue all the more frustrating and disappointing.

I think Vlad's comments in the original feedback thread were fair enough, but then later, in the Discord, I saw a lot of "let's move this to a private chat". They even changed their General channel to "slow mode" to prevent live conversations as this topic became hot. Now I see they were also deleting threads?! Ugh. That's not transparent at all. Not what I expected based on my previous experience with Kagi.

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

Well, I was giving him a few days to backpedal but it seems like he's not going to do that. There goes my subscription, back to ddg I guess. Since they are supposed to be 100% subscription funded (they still are, right?), this is one of the few companies where that hopefully might actually have a noticeable effect if enough people care about it.

edit: also their response regarding a request to add a “don’t do it” widget to suicide searches basically boils down to “but if we make a moral choice now, we’ll have to do more moral choices in the future!”, which is… suboptimal. https://kagifeedback.org/d/865-suicide-results-should-probably-have-a-dont-do-that-widget-like-google/

Meh, good for them tbh. I find these messages to be incredibly patronizing and somehow I doubt you can find a single person who will say "google posting the suicide number has made me reconsider killing myself"

[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 17 points 10 months ago

"Should we not be buying VW, BMW, Siemens and Bayer technology and products today because they participated in holocaust and directly collaborated with Hitler?"

No actually, you shouldn't. Thanks for asking.

[-] Deceptichum@kbin.social 15 points 10 months ago

Volkswagen was started by Hitler. It was designed to sell affordable cars to public. It actually ran at a loss during this period.

After the war the British turned it into the commercial entity it is today.

I’d argue Volkswagen is freed of its original form, when it was effectively gutted and rebuilt by the British.

Either way, buy a second hand car. Win for the environment and helps cut into corporate profits.

[-] DreamerofDays@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

It is also freed from its original form by being nearly eighty years removed.

I don’t have the time to stay angry forever, let alone against an organisation several generations removed from its foundational sins.

[-] Atemu@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago

There's of course valid reasons to boycott VW but that's for another topic ;)

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee -5 points 10 months ago

The new vw electric car wasn't on my list of potential cars to get because it was out of my price range. Now I found another reason not to get it. Totally forgot they produced for Nazi germany

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 14 points 10 months ago

It sounds like they have rewritten their response.

Basically it looks like they get search results by combining results from other sources like Google and Yandex. Brave has a public API, so it's not a "partnership". It's just adding another search source, like using Searx to combine a bunch of results into one result feed.

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Is he saying that Brave ceo is comparable to Hitler... :)

Anyway, I'm staying with Kagi. People who search for perfect companies will search forever, and probably keep using Google while they do.

[-] Sheeple@lemmy.world -3 points 10 months ago

No he's referring to a different issue unrelated to the thing where the CEO of Kagi is an active fascist.

[-] RandAlThor@midwest.social 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Do you have any links for that? I'm not seeing anything that is illustrating that.

Edit: I'm not trying to antagonize. I legitimately don't see the where he's pointed out as a fascist. The linked post doesn't hage anything that I can see.

[-] Scolding7300@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

I think he's referring to one of the top comments on this post with two links, here's one of them: https://kagifeedback.org/d/865-suicide-results-should-probably-have-a-dont-do-that-widget-like-google/

Although I don't exactly understand why they're calling him a fascist. Seems to me you need to go to their discord to understand, not sure.

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 10 months ago

I really don't think that is true.

[-] heygooberman@lemmy.today 7 points 10 months ago

I am no fan of Brave, but is there a way we can configure our Kagi preferences to exclude results from Brave Search? I think SearXNG allows for that. Under SearXNG preferences, there's an Engines tab, and under that, I can configure which search engines to enable and return results for my search. I haven't found anything like that on Kagi yet, but if anyone knows of a way to do it, please share.

[-] averyminya@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

It seems like Kagi's issues run deeper than the affiliation with Brave.

[-] kzhe@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

There will be according to the Discord but they haven't changed their attitude.

[-] Gallardo994@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

I honestly don't get the idea of an outrage specifically right here and right now. I do understand why people may have issues with Kagi but only now? Kagi has also been using Yandex as its search backend for quite a while and I don't think anyone gave a crap, considering all the things happening in the world. And now adding Brave is suddenly "I am not paying you anymore"? Am I missing something?

[-] sudneo@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

And before Yandex, Google - which they use since the beginning, and which it makes also clear that using the services of a company is at the moment a necessary evil, and does not mean in any way endorsing the values (or lack thereof...) of that company.

But apparently some people are really tunnel visioning on some specific issues and looking at them from a short term perspective only.

Being political I would say that this is an unfortunate result of the lack of a strong collective movement in the left, which leads to people looking mostly at individual problems but not at collective problems, because these seem overwhelming and potentially destabilizing for the status quo.

[-] leds@feddit.dk 1 points 10 months ago

There is no outrage, they supposedly lost 0.5% of the users which means they lost only this one person who us making all this noise.

[-] ineffable@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

Does your quote above actually appear anywhere on that page (or did it at some point) because I can't find it?

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 8 points 10 months ago

It looks like the response was rewritten. It basically says they combine results from various public sources, and have recently added Brave via the public Brave API. It sounds like it's not a partnership, just adding redundancy by having another search result source.

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Dogwin's law: Anyone who uses Godwins law is outing themselves as a nazi and should not be taken seriously.

[-] kzhe@lemmy.zip 0 points 10 months ago

They responded with some stuff (allowing users to opt out of Brave results/paying Brave) but it wasn't enough and their attitude hasn't changed. I want to leave but... nothing is as good enough. Keyboard navigable UI, better results, and easy custom bangs as well as the whole DDG bang library are amazing.

[-] Melonpoly@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

That person is really grasping at straws with the whole "the CEO is also a racist fascist" tangent by linking the Greatest Country website.

[-] Sheeple@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Scroll up. Another person posted evidence of him being a fascist

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this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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