Kagi has made its search engine available to anyone, anywhere. Users can visit kagi.com and search the web without creating an account for the first 50 searches, and registering adds 100 more. The company, which runs no ads, relies on word of mouth and is asking supporters to share the service with friends and family.
The announcement also addresses Google's plan, starting in early 2027, to turn off AI tools by default for school accounts, which would also disable Google Search for those accounts. Kagi argues that education should not be held hostage by an advertising company, and it urges schools facing this choice to consider alternatives to mandatory AI, including Kagi.
The Android app received a redesign with a new home screen that shows remaining free searches, rebuilt voice search with language selection, a Quick Settings tile, home screen widgets, a default search setup guide, image search by pasting an image, and a Quick Answer button. Assistant and Summarize now open within the app.
The release also lists numerous bug fixes, including issues with image search on quoted terms, Quick Answer on the .onion address, custom bang settings, and region-based results for Québec subjects.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing