Could also be a form of effort justification. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effort_justification

> The effect is most likely to occur when there are no obvious reasons for performing the task. Because expending effort to perform a useless or unenjoyable task, or experiencing unpleasant consequences in doing so, is cognitively inconsistent (see cognitive dissonance), people are assumed to shift their evaluations of the task in a positive direction to restore consistency.

I’m not following you.

https://dictionary.apa.org/effort-justification

It's not limited to physical effort. Wikipedia's example has embarassment in place of effort; presumably, money could also work.

I interpreted to mean that using a search engine is “useless or unenjoyable, or experiencing unpleasant consequences...”, with attention given to the last two feelings. And I can't figure out what that has to do with people who like Kagi and why it’s wrong or irritating for them to do so.

Granted I’ve been annoyed by similar occurrences with other services, but not to the point of suspecting collusion between the service and the public like the GP comment did.

Searching on the web takes effort. I don’t think this sentiment is controversial. Especially not on HN.

But do you think that because/if searching on the web takes effort and because people have to pay for Kagi, they are compelled to exaggerate its usefulness in public to justify the cost?

Switching to a nondefault technology takes effort and switching to Kagi in particular also costs money, which is also effort for the purpose of the psychological effect known as effort justification. Therefore, people would be likely to rate switching to Kagi as a good thing even if it was exactly the same as Google (says the effect). Therefore, people who say Kagi is good find it exactly the same a Google (implies the commenter).

TIL about effort justification! I think signing up for Kagi is not particularly effort-intensive however.