Based on the Hacker News discussion, here are the four most prevalent themes expressed by users:
1. The Exorbitant Technical and Financial Difficulty of Building a Viable Search Index
Users widely acknowledge the immense barrier to entry for creating a search index. Several arguments are presented against the feasibility for new competitors: the staggering cost (even Microsoft spent "$100 billion over 20 years" on Bing to limited effect), the technical complexity of not just crawling but ranking, and the challenge of maintaining fresh data.
"Building a comparable one from scratch is like building a parallel national railroad." — ghm2199
"Microsoft spent roughly $100 billion over 20 years on Bing and still holds single-digit share. If Microsoft cannot close the gap, no startup can do it alone." — monooso
2. Google’s Anti-Competitive "Ladder-Pulling" and Enforcement of Double Standards
There is a consensus that Google leverages its monopoly to stifle competition. Users note that Google built its index without strict adherence to robots.txt or consent, yet now enforces strict terms against others. This is framed as a "climbing the wall and pulling the ladder up" scenario.
"Google built its index by crawling the open web before robots.txt was a widespread norm... Google now enforces ToS and robots.txt against others from a position of monopoly power it accumulated without those constraints." — oh_fiddlesticks
"A classic case of climbing the wall, and pulling the ladder up afterward. Others try to build their own ladder, and Google uses their deep pockets and political influence to knock the ladder over before it reaches the top." — baggachipz
3. The Critique of Kagi’s Reliance on Third-Party Google Results
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Kagi’s business model. Critics argue that Kagi relies on third-party APIs (like SerpAPI) to obtain Google results, contradicting claims of independence and raising privacy concerns. There is skepticism about Kagi’s "own small-web index" and whether they are genuinely offering an alternative or simply reselling Google results with a privacy layer.
"Crazy for a company to admit: 'Google won't let us whitelabel their core product so we steal it and resell it.'" — xnx
"As a customer, the major implication of this is that even if Kagi's privacy policy says they try to not log your queries, it is sent to Google and still subject to Google's consumer privacy policy." — whs
4. The Iron Grip of "Search" as a Monopoly and Verb
Users discuss the entrenched nature of Google not just as a service, but as a cultural default. Even when using alternatives like Kagi or DDG, users often default to saying "I'll Google it," highlighting the difficulty of displacing a brand that has become genericized. This serves as a metaphor for the technical and psychological monopoly Google holds.
"Google is a verb, nobody can compete with that level of mindshare." — hamdingers
"I'd hear people say 'I'll Google that', then use Yahoo when they were still a major search engine." — pixl97