I just changed from DDG to Kagi and will probably pay them once out of Beta. So far I am very happy with the search results and I believe that the next innovation in search is it not being beholden to ads. DDG is not in the place where ads will corrupt your business but should you grow and be successful, you one day will be.
Haven't heard of you.com before, having a quick look at it:
- You.com uses affiliate links.
- My ad blocker (uBlock origin) shows that you.com has tracking in the form of analytics (https://plausible.io/api/event).
- you.com makes a lot of requests to many 3rd party domains.
- Kagi lets you quickly create rules to customise results such as domain/url weighting, term filtering etc...
- I personally find the UI/design off-putting - it's very busy and the round style elements immediately remind me of the windows XP theme.
- The popup in the right corner nagging to "Make You.com your default" is very off-putting.
- you.com promotes the use of Google Chrome.
- you.com loads results slower.
- I'm not a fan of the square cards on you.com.
- Kagi has a clear and transparent business model, you.com seems pretty up in the air as to how it will be funded in the future, including statements such as "You.com currently has no ads." - currently is the key word there.
- It's not clear if you.com uses data from other search engines.
