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DuckDuckGo Installs Up 30% After Google Announced AI Search (yahoo.com) 24

Posted by EditorDavid from the I'm-feeling-unlucky dept.
After Google announced AI-emphasizing changes to its search results, many web surfers began defecting to DuckDuckGo, reports TechCrunch. (They describe DuckDuckGo as "a privacy-focused alternative" that accounts for around 2% of the U.S. search market...) DuckDuckGo said U.S. app installs went up 18.1% week-over-week on average during the May 20 to May 25 period, compared to May 13 to May 18. The company said that growth was sustained for six consecutive days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install is even higher, with week-over-week growth hitting a 33% average, peaking at 69.9%... DuckDuckGo said the trend is stronger in the U.S, and that DuckDuckGo continued to gain users over the Memorial Day weekend, when it usually sees a dip in traffic. Some of that data is backed up by third parties. App analytics company Apptopia found a 29% increase in average daily downloads in the U.S. and a 12% increase globally over the same period.
DuckDuckGo also said visits to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com averaged 22.7% week-over-week growth, peaking at 27.7% on May 24, according to the article. ("DuckDuckGo also offers an AI Image Filter that filters out AI-created images from search results.")

TechCrunch delves into the reason why: I overheard a woman on the phone saying she was switching to DuckDuckGo because you can "opt out of using AI... Google just isn't Google anymore," she said. It seems that others had the same idea... Some have argued it will kill the open web, while others shared concerns that AI overviews surface inaccurate responses and take away control from users who might not want to use AI. It also overcomplicates simple things.
A Google spokesperson pointed out that AI Mode isn't the default in their search results. (And CNET notes Google include an AI-free "Web" choice in its results if you just want a page of ftraditional blue links.)

TechCrunch adds that DuckDuckGo also offers a separate free tool called Duck.ai offering access to models including Claude, Meta's Llama and OpenAI's GPT-5 mini. "All chats are private because DuckDuckGo strips the user's IP address before requests reach model providers, deletes conversations within 30 days, and prevents chats from being used for training."

DuckDuckGo Installs Up 30% After Google Announced AI Search More | Reply

DuckDuckGo Installs Up 30% After Google Announced AI Search

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  • This is temporary (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Saturday May 30, 2026 @01:50PM (#66167022)
    Traditional search quality has dropped to abysmal levels, and DDG is worse than Google. The old search algorithms cannot stand up to the flood of AI sites and search optimizations. Most of the time, I just go to the AI results and then, if it's at all important, go to what the AI uses as sources. The coming AI to optimize for AI search results is just part of the ongoing war of humanity against itself.

    • Re:This is temporary (Score:5, Informative)

      by brickhouse98 ( 4677765 ) on Saturday May 30, 2026 @01:59PM (#66167030)
      Can't say I agree. I've used DDG for years and noaiDDG since they released it and it's always gotten me results on the first page (and usually in the top 3 results anyhow.)

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Charlotte ( 16886 )

        Foreign language searches on DDG are abysmal. I think Google or Microsoft will win out in worldwide results. And MS has the edge with Edge.

      • For some things it works decently, but it tends to fail in specific scenarios. Lately I've been doing a lot of searches for RAM and SSD specifications, trying to find the specs for a particular unit I'm reselling. DuckDuckGo never has anything useful on the first page, whereas Google typically finds a TechPowerUp page with a full spec sheet.

        Interestingly, this is also the exact scenario where AI search faceplants. Technical specifications, or more broadly anything with numbers.

      • I've used DDG for years too. I stopped using it maybe 4 months ago. Getting useless results got too annoying.
      • I'd agree. I've been using them for years and they've been generally good. The only thing I really needed Google for was some programming related searches, but over the years they even started getting bad at those so DDG wasn't as bad comparatively. Incidentally the AI results for programming searches are actually quite good now that they're citing sources and usually the link I want is among those. I haven’t used it for much outside of that, but if it works as well for other things, I can see why Goo

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        DDG is a good start, but often one needs to continue at Google. And for some queries I already know before "DDG will not get it, I need Google". I blame them getting data from bing, which has similar problems with not getting what you mean and inventing other search terms you could have meant. And when it comes to AI, I think both DDG and Google sometimes produce helpful AI hints. Google for some shell command or how to do something (rather simple) in Latex and you already get the answer. At least google gi

      • Can't say I agree. I've used DDG for years and noaiDDG since they released it and it's always gotten me results on the first page (and usually in the top 3 results anyhow.)

        This! I switched to DDG , and the underlying theme of the new Google search paradigm s that you have to accept hallucinating search results.

    • Re:This is temporary (Score:5, Interesting)

      by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Saturday May 30, 2026 @02:23PM (#66167046)
      Today's AI is being used as (ad placement automation). What I see is the info I am looking for buried in the supposed AI return. So I avoid it where ever I can.
      Just think! Coming next is, Our AI Search subscription is just x per month.

      • Where avoiding it isn't possible, ignoring it would be the next best thing. That's the only logical course of action after seeing so many AI results that I know are false.

        The idea that I'm going to trust it for something I'm not already knowledgeable about is ridiculous. The idea that I need it for something I am knowledgeable about, is also ridiculous.

        • I found the results very useful. I will say it's not perfect, but the number of times I've given up and used Google instead have been once every 2-3 months. Also, image search is great because clicking the image takes you to the actual image instead of the source website, like how Google used to work
        • Funny! "The smarter the phone, the dumber the user."
      • You usually need a subscription to get search results for your local AI. I don't usually see ads, but then I have ublock origin installed on every device.
    • "DDG is worse than Google" used to be my opinion forever. But this has been completely flipped over the past 12-18 months. And I don't think it has anything to do with Bing having gotten better, just with how absolutely abysmal Google results are now.

      There was one key moment where an "authoritative" source on some topic was no longer in my Google results. I added the exact name of the website, and it ended up being somewhere on page 3. WTF?

      I then did one of my occasinal quick comparisons with DDG/Bing. Firs

  • They have an app? (Score:3)

    by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Saturday May 30, 2026 @03:08PM (#66167092)

    I had no idea they had a app. I just open my web browser and I have it set to use DDG for search. The AI answer exist at the top and it has sources to click through to to verify and get more information. It's optional as you can just scroll down and find more results.

    I've had overall a good experience with DDG over the years. I rarely use Google products if I can avoid them.

    • Your toilet paper roll comes with an app now, why does it surprise you that DuckDuckGo has one? Plenty of people can't do anything on their phone unless it has a large icon in the center of the home screen.

      Beyond that, it affords the app-pusher much deeper access to your life. They get to shoot off notifications, grab your data, execute more code at a time of their choosing, trade Google/Apple IDs and whatever else with their whole "ecosystem of apps". Just what a privacy-focused search engine needs, right?

  • Google Web "choice" (Score:3)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday May 30, 2026 @03:45PM (#66167130)

    (And CNET notes Google include an AI-free "Web" choice in its results if you just want a page of traditional blue links.)

    Which isn't available on the main/initial/default page (as far as I can see) and buried under the "More" option on result pages - so not super convenient. So you get results with AI before having the choice to see them w/o the AI crap. Noting that you can (apparently) manually add "&udm=14" to all your search queries to skip directly to the Web results, even from the start, which is okay, but not as universally convenient as DuckDuck's method.

  • I've contemplated using DDG as my main search engine because I suspect that getting an AI response from Google when I don't want it comes with a direct, negative, environmental impact. Every time.

  • It's not free, but there is a free trial, and it costs peanuts per month.

    If you're not paying for search, you're the product, not the customer. And when you are the product, enshittification is guaranteed.

    I briefly switched to Bing after I clicked an ad in Google's "search" results by mistake, but Bing is just as bad.

    Kagi also has the advantage of letting you filter out crap websites. I think that's gonna become increasingly useful as the AI contentpocalypse continues.

    • Kagi has the right approach to the AI summary. It will provide one if you append '?' to your search prompt requesting it, otherwise you get (excellent) straight search results without advertising filler. When I just want an answer about language syntax or the answer to a specific question of fact, the AI summary is excellent and efficient. When I am using it as a general search engine, no 'AI slop' gets in my way. It is well worth the small charge for a search engine that works efficiently for me (and does

    • Kagi also has the advantage of letting you filter out crap websites. I think that's gonna become increasingly useful as the AI contentpocalypse continues.

      It doesn't even feel like i use the same internet as everyone else.

      I filter hundreds of the most popular websites and holy fuck the old internet is still there.
      Lenses are a cool feature too that limit your searches to 10 websites and that also works really well but it'd be prime if you could have like 100 websites in there. Even with 10 it works really well to improve some searches.

  • https://www.startpage.com/do/m... [startpage.com]...

    My pref's are stored as a local cookie. You can use whatever search engine you like.
    *note that link has been sanitized.*

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