DuckDuckGo reported a sharp rise in U.S. app installs after Google announced major AI changes to Search, as the privacy-focused rival said users want more control over whether AI appears in results.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
DuckDuckGo saw a significant increase in U.S. app installs after Google announced a major expansion of artificial intelligence across its search platform, a shift that has sparked backlash from users who do not want AI built into routine search results.
The privacy-focused search company said installs rose sharply after Google’s annual I/O developer conference, where the search giant unveiled sweeping changes that would make AI a larger part of how users ask questions, receive answers and monitor information online, TechCrunch reported.
DuckDuckGo said U.S. app installs increased by an average of 18.1% week over week from May 20 to May 25 compared with the previous week, May 13 to May 18. The increase continued for six straight days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25.
The company reported even stronger growth on iOS, where installs rose by an average of 33% week over week and reached a peak increase of 69.9%.
The surge followed Google’s announcement that AI would become a far more central part of its search engine. The redesign expands the search box to handle longer conversational questions and removes the need for users to choose a specific search mode before entering a query. Google also introduced an AI-powered query suggestion system designed to go beyond traditional autocomplete by helping users build more complex questions.
Google’s AI Overviews feature will now allow users to ask follow-up questions in AI Mode, with that function launching immediately. The company also announced “information agents,” which users can create, customize and manage inside Google Search. Those agents are designed to run in the background, monitor web changes and notify users when new information appears.
The agents represent a more advanced version of Google Alerts, which launched in 2003, but with expanded AI-powered capabilities.
The changes have drawn criticism from users and commentators who say Google is making search less direct and more dependent on AI-generated summaries. Critics have warned that AI-mediated search may hurt the open web by reducing traffic to source websites. Others have raised concerns about inaccurate AI answers, loss of user control and unnecessary complexity for simple searches.
DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said Google’s approach gives users too little choice.
“Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out,” Weinberg said Tuesday in a statement. “As a result, their results are getting worse, not better. We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want.”
DuckDuckGo has long marketed itself as a privacy-oriented alternative to Google. Despite that positioning, the company has remained a small player in search, accounting for about 2% of the U.S. market.
During Google’s 2023 search antitrust trial, Weinberg testified that Google’s exclusive default search agreements hurt DuckDuckGo’s ability to become the default search engine on other browsers.
The company said interest also rose for its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com. Visits to that page increased by an average of 22.7% week over week and peaked at 27.7% growth on May 24. The page disables all AI features by default, including AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images.
DuckDuckGo said the adoption trend was stronger in the United States and continued over Memorial Day weekend, a period when the company typically sees traffic decline.
Weinberg said privacy remains central to the company’s pitch.
“Not only do we respect user choice, but also user privacy,” Weinberg said. “Everything you do in DuckDuckGo is private; we don’t collect search histories or chats and nothing is used for AI training.”
DuckDuckGo does offer optional AI tools, including Search Assist, which is similar to Google’s AI Overviews, and an AI Image Filter that removes AI-created images from search results. Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo’s chief communications and policy officer, said those tools remain popular even as users seek more control over AI.
“People just want a choice,” Bazbaz said.
The increase in installs suggests Google’s aggressive AI rollout may be pushing some users toward search alternatives that let them decide whether AI appears in their results. DuckDuckGo is now positioning that choice, along with privacy protection, as its clearest contrast with Google’s new AI-heavy search model.
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