Don't search when it's not needed

Thibaultmol

I realized it when I was using the shipping tracking feature.
But for example if I'm 'searching' with a ups tracking number, I probably want the tracking info and I don't actually care about the results.

If anyone, you could argue from a privacy standpoint that you probably DON'T want to send every package id through all the 3rd party search api's.

But I think in general this Feature Request is also about both reducing cost and energy.

doing the search: 5 + 5
shouldn't return search results. it should only show the calculator widget.

Maybe this all doesn't apply to every single widget, but I think a lot of them do searches which are a waste of money and energy.
Maybe this has to be made a setting, i don't know.

Same obv with 150 usd to eur style queries

Thibaultmol

Maybe having this be a setting or something.
so if you have it enabled, it won't do a search, it'll only show you the widget and a 'do a search' button or something if do indeed want to search for it

carl

These things are better solved by the user than by Kagi, in my opinion. It takes so little effort from the user. Looking a lot for UPS tracking numbers? Bookmark that page. Doing calculations? Use a calculator or Spotlight. Safari will even show you the maths result in the URL bar before you press enter. Want to know the weather? Every OS has a built in weather app that works well if you configure it. The same with clocks, calendars, currency conversions, etc.

If you use bookmarks and activate history and Siri suggestions in your browser, you will almost never need to use search for something that isn't a search.

maurs

carl good or bad, i think that we’ve entered an era where the masses expect immediate gratification. I still get mad at spotlight when I can’t squeeze an immediate number conversion out of it.

Personally, I struggle with managing a lifetime’s worth of found tooling and answers. I’m not a data index, but I hear they make a thing for that.

Regarding answers vs search results: my preference is “both”. I typically want a quick answer and if that answer isn’t what I was looking for, I want to investigate (this is when I begin scrolling).

As to whether it’s wasteful to search vs calculate vs present cached data…this is very subjective and context dependent. I also have a hunch that most of the context added automatically is staggeringly inexpensive to provide.

Thibaultmol

so what was the point of kagi implementing all these things then? the whole point is that kagi is bringing it all together....

also, you're assuming everyone is using a mac, we're not.
Could i have like 20+ bookmarks for these features? i could.. but one of the points of kagi is to make stuff easier and more convenient... so I don't understand why you're proposing that the user needs to do more work

carl

I'm not assuming everybody is using a Mac, but I assume there's equivalent features on other systems. Having these widgets in the search engine is convenient for things that you use every once in a while. But if it's something you regularly use it makes more sense to use better solutions, such as bookmarks.

Why is reducing energy usage the responsibility of Kagi and not the responsibility of the user?

neysofu

I'm against this. Sometimes widgets show up but I still want to take a look at the search results (e.g. I prefer some 3rd party websites to Kagi widgets for timezone conversions, but it's just my personal preference. Similarly, some websites show full currency value history and not just the current exchange rate).

I'd get it if Kagi did this to save money, but it wouldn't benefit me in any way, quite the contrary.