Kagi Champions the “Small Web” in an Era of AI Dominance
In an era where AI has become the backbone of the internet, the Palo Alto-based search engine, Kagi, is making a valiant effort to spotlight the “Small Web.” This term, as defined by Kagi, refers to the non-commercial, human-authored websites that harken back to the early days of the internet. These are the personal blogs, webcomics, independent videos, and more, that were once the norm before the web became dominated by ad-supported business models and platforms controlled by large corporations.Here
A Renaissance of the Early Web
Today, such sites are becoming harder to discover amid a sea of AI-authored content. Kagi, however, aims to change this. The search startup initially launched its “Small Web” initiative in 2023, aiming to promote this kind of content in its search results and through a dedicated website. As of March, Kagi has expanded these efforts to browser extensions, mobile apps, and a way to filter results by category.
Discovering the Hidden Gems of the Web
The Small Web website operates in a similar vein to the earlier StumbleUpon. It randomly displays one of the selected sites, allowing users to click a “next” button to move to another. The goal is to help users discover parts of the web that they might otherwise have missed. With the addition of categories, users can now limit discovery to just those topics of interest from the more than 30,000 “Small Web” sites in Kagi’s index.
Image Credits:Kagi
Accessing the Small Web On-the-Go
Kagi’s new mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as its browser extensions, now offer access to these “Small Web” sites. Users can select what sort of content they’d like to see, like videos, blogs, code repositories, or comics. They can also view a list of recently viewed or popular sites and read them in a distraction-free mode. Additionally, users can save their favorite sites and articles to return to later.
Room for Improvement
Despite Kagi’s commendable initiative to make less-trafficked parts of the indie web more visible, some users believe that the Small Web product isn’t going far enough. On the discussion forum Hacker News, one user pointed out that Kagi is limiting its selection to sites with RSS feeds that have recent posts. This omits unique, single-purpose websites or experimental pages from being included in Kagi’s collection. Another user expressed frustration when they came across a supposed “Small Web” site that seemed to be AI-authored.
Looking Forward
Despite these critiques, the concept of a human-curated web of content that’s also written by humans could be something worth building. This is particularly the case if Kagi’s original concept of becoming a Google alternative by offering a premium, paid search engine doesn’t pan out. In the meantime, people can suggest new sites for the Small Web via its GitHub page.
