Kagi Small Web
The most recommended of 11 blog directories
People recommend it as a free way to discover independent personal blogs and sites. Critics most often say it skews toward American tech blogs and includes AI-generated posts.
People recommend it as a free way to discover independent personal blogs and sites. Critics most often say it skews toward American tech blogs and includes AI-generated posts.
76 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 46
- criticize it
- 30
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 46 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Discovering independent personal blogs and sites
“Another nice place to discover independently maintained personal websites”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think” “I like Kagi's small web initiative to help people find personal sites”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “POSSE – Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere” “Kagi small web is great for discovering stuff like this”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?” Interesting content, addictive browsing
“it gets a bit addictive, you spend hours on it but end up finding interesting content”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “it's really nice and I can totally see becoming addictive”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “i've already seen lots of nice stuff on there”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Hacker News but for Independent Blogs” - Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”
Curated list of about 5,000 sites
“5,000 curated sites is small enough to be useful”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “The open Small Web list[0] is invaluable.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Much of the content looks AI-generated
“Because it breaks multiple of their guidelines: multi-author, all fake authors, and all LLM content at non-human scale.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb” “I do love the concept, but a little part of me died each time I came across an article with a very strong AI voice.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “if you select the "programming" category and click around for a short while, you get a fair amount of obvious AI slop”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” - Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web”
Skews toward tech blogs, not diverse
“It doesn't look very "small" to me. I "next post"ed a few, and most of them ended up being just some typical tech bro blog”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “It’s all mostly American tech blogs. I mean, it’s a nice initiative, but it’s less diverse than Hacker News.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “The best is over: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet” “I noticed that Kagi Small Web tends to lean towards more tech focused blogs.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think” - Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse”
Criteria too strict, excludes many sites
“Unfortunately Kagi's definition of "small web" is: blog or webcomic. You must have an RSS feed and it must have recent posts.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “Restricting visibility to blogs that post at least every week doesn't feel very 'small web' to me.”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi” “far more interesting and relevant "small web" websites are outside the filter than in it”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think” - Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web”
- Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”
Ads, cookie walls and awkward navigation
“The custom cursor (well why not) had me struggling to following a link, and instinctively I refreshed the page.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kagi Small Web” “it took me 3 clicks of "next" to hit a page with a cookie dickover. Might need to tweak the filter.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “What Is a Dickover?” “It still includes results that have advertising, and omits stuff that isn't small but is ad free”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Dead Internet Theory” - Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”
Other blog directories people recommend
The four most recommended other blog directories, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kagi Small WebThis page | 46 | 30 | 61% | 9 | — | — |
| Wander small web explorer | 31 | 3 | 91% | 7 | 1 mo3 owners | Approved |
| Ooh.directory | 26 | 5 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Personal blog frontpage | 21 | 1 | 95% | 2 | — | — |
| Bubbles.town | 16 | 4 | 80% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 91 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Kagi Small Web filter would give you very similar results”
“SmallWeb is a collection of English-speaking tech blogs, it cannot even begin to compete in diversity”
“Because it breaks multiple of their guidelines: multi-author, all fake authors, and all LLM content at non-human scale.”
“i've already seen lots of nice stuff on there”
“cute community. I started browsing it right after and if you skip the AI slop, it's crazy how many people are good writers”
“it took me 3 clicks of "next" to hit a page with a cookie dickover. Might need to tweak the filter.”
“Marginalia Search / Kagi Small Web / Wiby / Million Short are better options”
“still has a lot of interesting stuff like the old internet”
“It’s all mostly American tech blogs. I mean, it’s a nice initiative, but it’s less diverse than Hacker News.”
“It contains 30k + rss/atom feeds of indie web sites.”
“here are a few other directories and indices worth checking out”
“I like Kagi's small web initiative to help people find personal sites”
“I've been visiting multiple times a day and spelunking around.”
“It doesn't look very "small" to me. I "next post"ed a few, and most of them ended up being just some typical tech bro blog”
“Unfortunately Kagi's definition of "small web" is: blog or webcomic. You must have an RSS feed and it must have recent posts.”
“This is cool, it reminds me of stumbleupon from back in the day”
“an AI-generated blog post ad for a cattle fencing service, and a blog republishing a Disney Parks press release”
“this is much less interesting to me without the wider world of interesting, small sites”
“it gets a bit addictive, you spend hours on it but end up finding interesting content”
“it excludes a lot of the small web because they only allow actively-maintained blogs”
“if you select the "programming" category and click around for a short while, you get a fair amount of obvious AI slop”
“5,000 curated sites is small enough to be useful”
“it's really nice and I can totally see becoming addictive”
“I do love the concept, but a little part of me died each time I came across an article with a very strong AI voice.”
“The custom cursor (well why not) had me struggling to following a link, and instinctively I refreshed the page.”
“I found kagis to be too personal blog focused for my tastes.”
“I like the idea, but would like to be able to select a language”
“I noticed that Kagi Small Web tends to lean towards more tech focused blogs.”
“using HN as a curation layer for kagi's small web list”
“I would expect a raw link in the top bar to the page shown, to be able to bookmark it etc.”
“always find something worth reading”
“far more interesting and relevant "small web" websites are outside the filter than in it”
“Another nice place to discover independently maintained personal websites”
“though their rss only seems to show 5 updates a day across thousands of sites”
“There are so many cool asteroids with people on them though”
“Restricting visibility to blogs that post at least every week doesn't feel very 'small web' to me.”
“You can view these blogs visually at https://kagi.com/smallweb and content from all of them is surfaced high in Kagi search results”
“It still includes results that have advertising, and omits stuff that isn't small but is ad free”
“Kagi small web is great for discovering stuff like this”
“The open Small Web list[0] is invaluable.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.