Kagi Rolls Out a Small Web Initiative
October 5, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Recall the early expectations for the Web: It would be a powerful conduit for instant connection and knowledge-sharing around the world. Despite promises to the contrary, that rosy vision has long since given way to commercial interests’ paid content, targeted ads, bots, and data harvesting. Launched in 2018, Kagi offers a way to circumvent those factors with its ad-free, data protecting search engine—for a small fee, naturally. Now the company is promoting what it calls the Kagi Small Web initiative. We learn from the blog post:
“Since inception, we’ve been featuring content from the small web through our proprietary Teclis and TinyGem search indexes. This inclusion of high-quality, lesser-known parts of the web is part of what sets Kagi’s search results apart and gives them a unique flavor. Today we’re taking this a step further by integrating Kagi Small Web results into the index.”
See the write-up for examples. Besides these insertions into search results, one can also access these harder-to-find sources at the new Kagi Small Web website. This project displays a different random, recent Web page with each click of the “Next Post” button. Readers are also encouraged to check out their experimental Small YouTube, which we are told features content by YouTube creators with fewer than 4,000 subscribers. (Although as of this writing, the Small YouTube link supplied redirects right back to the source blog post. Hmm.)
The write-up concludes with these thoughts on Kagi’s philosophy:
“The driving question behind this initiative was simple yet profound: the web is made of millions of humans, so where are they? Why do they get overshadowed in traditional search engines, and how can we remedy this? This project required a certain leap of faith as the content we crawl may contain anything, and we are putting our reputation on the line vouching for it. But we also recognize that the ‘small web’ is the lifeblood of the internet, and the web we are fighting for. Those who contribute to it have already taken their own leaps of faith, often taking time and effort to create, without the assurance of an audience. Our goal is to change that narrative. Together with the global community of people who envision a different web, we’re committed to revitalizing a digital space abundant in creativity, self-expression, and meaningful content – a more humane web for all.”
Does this suggest that Google Programmable Search Engine is a weak sister?
Cynthia Murrell, October 5, 2023
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