Table of Contents
Search Engines for the Small Web
Alternatives to Google that surface independent, personal, and text-heavy sites.
Why This Matters
Google search has been in structural decline: traffic to quality sites fell 60%+ between 2021–2025 while AI-generated spam flourished. News publishers lost half their Google traffic between 2023–2025. Algorithm updates dropped from 10/year to 4 while volatility hit record highs.
Human curation and alternative search become essential when the dominant engine is broken.
Search Engines
Kagi
Paid search engine ($10/month) with actually good results and no ad-based business model. Also offers Kagi Small Web — a free search specifically for independent sites.
Wiby
Search engine for the classic web. Surfaces old-school, lightweight sites that modern search ignores or buries.
Marginalia
Explicitly favors text-heavy websites. Penalises modern web design bloat, tracking scripts, and JavaScript-heavy pages. One of the best ways to find personal sites and long-form writing.