DuckDuckGo has seen usage surge after Google unveiled its biggest Search overhaul in decades, suggesting some users may be looking for alternatives as the internet giant pushes deeper into AI.
DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine, said US installs rose an average of 20.8% week over week in the seven days after Google's May 19 announcements at its I/O conference.
Growth peaked at 37.6% on May 26, according to DuckDuckGo. On iOS in the US, installs climbed an average of 33% during the same period, reaching nearly 70% growth on May 25.
DuckDuckGo also said visits to its noai.duckduckgo.com page, where AI features are disabled by default, rose 22.7% on average week-over-week.
The timing is notable, though it's unclear whether Google's changes directly caused the increase.
At I/O, Google announced a sweeping redesign of Search that brings more AI features into the core search experience. The company is integrating capabilities from AI Mode directly into the main search box, allowing users to ask longer, conversational questions and upload images, videos, files, and browser tabs. Google is also adding AI-generated suggestions and follow-up conversations directly within Search.
DuckDuckGo executives argued that some users are pushing back against that approach.
"Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement. "We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want."
A usage spike this steep is pretty unprecedented in recent memory, according to DuckDuckGo spokesperson Kamyl Bazbaz.
"There hasn't been a news event that created this kind of jump in a long time," Bazbaz told Business Insider. "I would have remembered one."
Still, the data is limited to DuckDuckGo's internal figures, and broader shifts in search behavior remain difficult to measure.
Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at [email protected].
Read next
Alistair Barr is the author of Business Insider's Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up here. Before that, he was BI's Global Tech Editor and the Big Tech team leader at Bloomberg, following a reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, and MarketWatch. Alistair won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2007 for coverage of short selling and was a finalist in 2013 for scoops on the Facebook IPO. More recently, he won a 2024 San Francisco Press Club award for commentary. Got a tip? Reach out using the secure messaging app Signal (+1 415-341-4927) or via email on [email protected].ExpertiseAlistair oversees all things Big Tech, along with startups and venture capital. He writes analysis and columns about topics including generative AI, large language models, cloud computing, semiconductors, online search, e-commerce, EVs, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.Popular StoriesArtificial Intelligence:It's getting harder to make big leaps at the frontier of AIOpenAI's AI-adjusted earnings numbers have echoes of Groupon and WeWorkDeath by LLM: Stack Overflow's decline, and its plan to survive, shows the future of free online data in an AI worldCloud computing:Amazon dominated the first cloud era. The AI boom has kicked off Cloud 2.0, and the company doesn't have a head start this time.In cloud, there's AI (which is hot) and everything else (which is not)Chips:Why Intel is still so important: Real countries have fabsApple's made-in-the-USA chips signal a turnaround for the US's big semiconductor betEVs and Tesla:Tesla's AI supercomputer has a Silicon Valley town rushing to meet surging electricity demandTesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the USOnline Search:Google is losing its status as a verbA simple way to fix search: Bright pink ads
Follow Following
Every time publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Look out for an alert in your inbox the next time publishes a story!
Every time a new story is published, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Look out for an alert in your inbox the next time a new story is published!
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
