‘A Professional Internet User’, with Vlad Prevolac

I always look forward to a new episode of The Talk Show from John Gruber, and this one with Kagi CEO Vladimir Prelovac was no exception.

One of the most enjoyable episodes of recent times, this was an enlightening listen that highlights aspects of search that I had never considered (but which support my general view). It takes some deep dives down some interesting technical rabbit holes. Prelovac is a very knowledgeable and humble guest, and embodies a company whose values I can get on board with.

A few random things I learned (spoiler alerts, maybe?):

Kagi is not styling itself as ‘the next Google’ or the ‘Google Killer’ - it exists to give users an alternative if they choose.

Safari - whilst not created as an extension for any major search engine - perpetuates the ad-driven search model as Apple charges traffic acquisition fees to Google (and the other defaults available). This is part of the reason Kagi cannot be set as the default search engine.

Safari does not necessarily always use the latest version of WebKit.

It has given me tons of food for thought - exactly what I was hoping for before I listened to it.