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  • Have country/region value in control center stick in new sessions (unaffected by the language switch when searching)

  • SuggestionsDone

swap Thank you for your patience and appriciating the complexity of various UX paths that needed to be explored. After exhausting all areas of interest here is what we are proposing:

  • Remove the region setting from the control center

This is the one that was the major UX hurdle that we had to work around, resulting in the current implementation. We did not realize that we could simply remove it without losing any function, simplifying things a lot. Thanks for opening our eyes!

  • Change in global settings would reflect to current local setting

This is because visiting settings should/would count as 'session reset'. Just by visiting settings without any change, session would still 'reset' its filter options.

  • Going back to home page would reset the settings

This is because it would also count as 'session reset' and this is for consistency (that is how other filters work).

The last two are still somewhat up for grabs. We can have visiting settings and home page as session resets or not.
By reset I mean reseting region, lens selection and any filters to their defaults.

Basically we should agree what a search session is:

a) Streak of consecutive searches inside SERP pages (including web/images/videos/news/maps)
b) Session defined by a browser tab - end to end experience from starting a search to closing the tab. In this case, visiting home page or general settings would not reset settings.

Which feels more natural to you?

      Vlad I'm late at the party but I've read the thread now.
      I've the same feelings as @swap and @z64 (switching between Italy and International is disturbing for all my searches).
      About search sessions I'm for:

      a) Streak of consecutive searches inside SERP pages (including web/images/videos/news/maps)

      This is because when a user voluntarily change the "local" region setting, is doing that before/after doing a specific search (or a search and successive refinements). If it's a change "local to the search", I want it to expire after the search, not after my tab.
      I also think that the reset pattern occurring when visiting general preferences or home page is correct: this value has to be treated as temporary, exactly with the same lifespan as "time" selection.
      I'm late on this too, but I also agree to control center region setting removal: was always misleading, and I used this setting instead of the setting in preferences somewhat randomly.

        Vlad hank you for your patience and appriciating the complexity of various UX paths that needed to be explored.

        All good, thank you so much for listening to your customers.

        After exhausting all areas of interest here is what we are proposing:

        Remove the region setting from the control center

        This is the one that was the major UX hurdle that we had to work around, resulting in the current implementation. We did not realize that we could simply remove it without losing any function, simplifying things a lot. Thanks for opening our eyes!

        LGTM!

        Change in global settings would reflect to current local setting

        This is because visiting settings should/would count as 'session reset'. Just by visiting settings without any change, session would still 'reset' its filter options.

        LGTM

        Going back to home page would reset the settings

        This is because it would also count as 'session reset' and this is for consistency (that is how other filters work).

        The last two are still somewhat up for grabs. We can have visiting settings and home page as session resets or not.

        Visiting settings -> session reset looks weird to me.
        Changing settings -> session reset (with new values) looks good to me (but not a must-have, like stated above).

        By reset I mean reseting region, lens selection and any filters to their defaults.

        Basically we should agree what a search session is:

        a) Streak of consecutive searches inside SERP pages (including web/images/videos/news/maps)
        b) Session defined by a browser tab - end to end experience from starting a search to closing the tab. In this case, visiting home page or general settings would not reset settings.

        Which feels more natural to you?

        I am not sure on a difference between a) and b). Once I am done with my searches, what else am I doing in Kagi? Wouldn't I likely close tab/window with a) when I am done, making a) a special case of b)?

        To me, b) feels more natural, mostly because it feels odd to me that visiting settings resets things.

        I would need to see how it feels when using it to be certain.

        • Vlad replied to this.

            swap Visiting settings/home page and resetting things adds to the notion of these local settings being temporary. That is what @seventhwave agrees with too. So looking for you to change your mind or someone else to chime in for tiebreaker!

            • swap replied to this.

                Vlad

                I won't be stubborn on this.

                To me, it's only the settings one that looks weird. Not necessarily wrong.

                Maybe a little hint message to explain this to users? Perhaps this shows up only once, or up to when someone dismisses it?

                Maybe I just try it and I see nothing weird about it. Go for it!

                    So, I'll describe what I'd like:

                    1. Nothing besides changing the setting in settings changes my global region setting. No bang, no switch outside the settings page.

                    2. Using a bang or changing the non-setting selector, changes it while I stay on kagi.com. so using !reg or !de all searches while I'm using the sites search field, stay in Germany, but once I navigate away, or use the browser searchbar, it defaults to my settings again. (Implementation like a hidden field, or query string)

                    I guess 2 could be done via "session", but for me that would be worse (though slightly better than now), and I think its harder to grok.

                      Here's what I'd expect it to behave like, though I know it isn't currently the case

                      The control centers setting should be named and work as the "default" setting. Such as 'default search region'.

                      The filter when searching should always be the default unless changed for a specific search.

                      Say I search "pizza" and my default is UK, I'll get UK in the filter, I could then quick ly toggle the filter to Italy which will change the results to Italian results for this search/session only. After which the filter will return to what is the default set in the control center.

                        Vlad I like this proposal, but will merely visiting settings reset the region? The settings screen feels more like an overlay. I wouldn't expect it to actually change anything if I open it and then close it without touching anything else.

                        • Vlad replied to this.

                            whee Not visiting control center, but "All Settings" page.

                            • whee replied to this.

                                Vlad Right, that's the one. It mentally feels like a window over the search page. If I open a window and then just click the "X" to close, a state change would be surprising. Right now it seems to retain my previous search and filters and that matches what I'm expecting to happen.

                                  10 days later

                                  Just found this thread and I need to add this was one of my main cases of me switching to Google. I use international by default, but sometimes I need something more local and typing the prefix "g" before the query was much easier than opening the control center and switching the country. (also regional bangs doesn't work for me because of pre-existent bang).

                                    7 days later

                                    I agree with removing it altogether from the Control Center. It doesn't really serve any purpose there and just muddies the waters. The default region should be set under All Settings and then the per search region can be changed right at the search page.

                                    As for how long a change at the search page region should last: I think that any time you search via the address bar (when Kagi is the default search engine) the default region from All Settings should be used. Even if that tab had previously been changed to another region. So, if that rules out option B, then I guess option A. But I would actually prefer option B where a tab stays in that region until it is closed, except if a search is made from the address bar.

                                      4 days later
                                      9 days later

                                      @Vlad and the rest of the team: thank you so much for implementing this. Despite several misunderstandings in this thread, it works exactly like I was expecting it to work. Massive quality of life improvement for the product!

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