Re:The Death Knell of Digital Search
by dimator on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:42PM
(#50447910)
yes, kagi is great, but the larger point of search is dying, and therefore the web will die, is still there.
kagi, for example, has "Quick Answer" mode, which means if you append "?" to whatever your asking about, it will generate a summary (sort of an on-demand AI injection), which is great for the user experience (nobody is shoving AI down your throat).
but the problem remains: am i really going to scour web results, or am i going to throw in a "?" and get my answer in less than 3 seconds? i find myself using this more and more, despite deliberately trying not to, the convenience of is just addictive like that.
the result for web site operators is the same: my click never arrived, the ads they served didn't reach anyone, and they are disincentivized to even run a site.
i'm not sure what's going to happen, but it's not looking great. the web was meant to democratize information. the current generation of LLMs/search/chats are reversing this, siloing the truth within the same 5 oligarchs of data.
kagi, for example, has "Quick Answer" mode, which means if you append "?" to whatever your asking about, it will generate a summary (sort of an on-demand AI injection), which is great for the user experience (nobody is shoving AI down your throat).
but the problem remains: am i really going to scour web results, or am i going to throw in a "?" and get my answer in less than 3 seconds? i find myself using this more and more, despite deliberately trying not to, the convenience of is just addictive like that.
the result for web site operators is the same: my click never arrived, the ads they served didn't reach anyone, and they are disincentivized to even run a site.
i'm not sure what's going to happen, but it's not looking great. the web was meant to democratize information. the current generation of LLMs/search/chats are reversing this, siloing the truth within the same 5 oligarchs of data.