Agree with this. While I've read some threads in the past here about how auto-detecting whether to use the "good results provider" based on query complexity is not worth the trouble, mathematical calculations are a situation where I always want to use the calculator widget, and never want to use the results view since the exact calculation I typed is not among the results.
(This may also be helped by the Wolfram|Alpha integration I mentioned a couple of weeks ago)
Can you give a few examples of real queries?
Note We did have this in the past and users complained that the search results page looked too empty with just the calc widget on top
Vlad I usually use it for simple arithmetic like 2+2*2, combinatorics stuff like 27 choose 4.
I can't really think of any calculation queries where I would want search results to show up - but I suppose this may be different from person to person. Perhaps some sort of settings toggle for this would be possible to please both camps of people?
It feels like a section called 'Cost saving' could exist to control showing only the widget in certain cases
We could show how many searches were 'saved' by this, and give further tips (bangs are also free, reloads are free etc)
Main issue is this becomes a power user feature that is opt in.
Searches in the browser integration (usually the address bar) provide suggestions. Starting to enter domain names, or just searches for unique entity names, often yield exact URLs as suggestions. For example, search for "thuma" suggests "https://thuma.co".
Request: redirect these suggestions to the address rather than a search.
patrick-nicholson How should we handle when people actually want to search for a url (for exaple to summarize it as it becamse very popular after our release?)
I would expect that summarizing a literal URL is better served by a different interface than search since the results being summarized will contain more than just that URL.
patrick-nicholson what I am trying to say is that searching for a URL is a legitimate use case. We could expect people to quote URLs for URl search but that would have the issue of discoverability?
Vlad From my perspective, suggestions are better served by redirect. If suggestions are routed differently than manual returns, literal URL searches wouldn't need to change.
Put another way, the current browser UX is confusing. I use Kagi as my default browser search provider. If I enter a literal URL in the address bar I go there. If I start typing a URL and get a Kagi suggestion that I accept, I get a Kagi search.
patrick-nicholson That makes sense, if the referrer is not another kagi page, we should redirect. Although this should really be the job of the browser. Why is it sending a URl to search in the first place? Orion browser will correctly open the URl for example.
Vlad It happens when it's a Kagi suggestion. Specifically, I have this issue in Kiwi Browser on Android (Chromium based).
With the advent of the enhancing of tracking numbers in Kagi search being revealed, there was a good point brought up in #general chat of the Kagi Search Discord guild.
Maybe it would be better to have a bang leading to a separate delivery tracking page so that users wouldn't waste searches trying to look up delivery status?
https://discord.com/channels/849884108750061568/849884109240270890/1088184798872350840
As there are a finite amount of searches, I would imagine something as brief as checking the tracking number would make a customer feel cheated as it was so brief. Likewise with making quick calculations / conversions via more integrated functions within the search bar. So, would it be feasible to, instead of adding these functions to generally enhance what that 1 search being spent actually gives the user, expand the functionality of the search bar so that certain, direct, quick searches can be sought after without spending that 1 search? Like, going to the Kagi search page and typing down a tracking number and only have the search bar expand to give tracking details without performing a search?
(edited to amend as I have discovered that it roughly costs more to perform these types of queries using official API)
With the calculator, it is helpful that the answer is immediately given for a calculation in the context menu, but oftentimes there may be more than one calculation needing to be made. So, there will still be that expenditure of one search, but with the integrated calculator with the search results, anymore will be avoided.
Vlad even though it has shrunk in scope, i am ultimately asking for simple actions that aren't necessarily searches that have the user use one of their finite amount of searches in order to perform it to not use one of the searches, like calculations. so, like, performing a calculation or conversion; instead of pressing enter and making them spend a search to then be granted greater ability to do further calculations as there is a calculator widget, there should be a built in ability of Kagi's front page or similar to have it performed inside of the search bar without incurring a search. but this is assuming stuff like this doesn't incur tremendous cost.
Vlad another way i can put it is a user putting in 2 + 2 into the Kagi.com search bar and instead of simply giving an answer via taking them to the search results, the user presses enter and have the context menu transform into a calculator so that they can avoid spending that one search and make further calculations. it will keep the user on Kagi but won't explicitly make them feel cheated out of a search.
@Vlad Is this still an ongoing thing, now that we have unlimited searches? Are the cost savings worth implementing this to Kagi?
