DuckDuckGo Rises Against Google's AI: A Privacy Choice

A Shift in Search Engine User Behavior

Last week, a phone conversation illustrated a changing trend among search engine users. A woman expressed her intention to switch to DuckDuckGo, motivated by the desire to avoid using artificial intelligence (AI). She summarized her sentiment by stating that "Google is simply no longer Google."

During its annual I/O developer conference, Google unveiled a radical transformation of its search engine. The traditional list of blue links, which made Google famous, is set to disappear in favor of an AI agent capable of answering queries and performing tasks. This announcement sparked strong reactions.

Concerns About Google's AI

Google's redesign has raised various concerns. Some experts fear that this evolution threatens the openness of the web, while others question the accuracy of the responses provided by the AI. Additionally, the loss of control for users who prefer to avoid AI is a topic of debate. The redesign also complicates simple tasks, such as searching for the word "disregard."

In response to these changes, some users are turning to DuckDuckGo, a search engine that emphasizes privacy protection. Although DuckDuckGo has never managed to dethrone Google, accounting for only about 2% of the search market in the United States, this situation could evolve.

DuckDuckGo's Challenges Against Google

During Google's antitrust trial in 2023, Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo, testified about the challenges faced by his company. He highlighted that Google's exclusive default search contracts limited DuckDuckGo's ability to become the default search engine on other browsers.

Weinberg criticized Google's decision to enforce the use of AI without an option to disable it. According to him, this degrades the quality of search results. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, aims to give users the choice to determine the extent of AI in their search experience.

Notable Growth for DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is beginning to capitalize on this situation. Between May 20 and May 25, installations of its app in the United States increased by 18.1% compared to the previous week. This growth continued for six consecutive days, peaking at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the increase is even more pronounced, with an average rise of 33% and a peak of 69.9%.

Meanwhile, visits to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, increased by an average of 22.7% week-over-week, reaching a peak of 27.7% on May 24. This page disables all AI-related features by default, such as AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images.

A Strong Trend in the United States

DuckDuckGo has observed that this trend is particularly strong in the United States. Even during the Memorial Day weekend, a period typically marked by a drop in traffic, the search engine continued to gain users.

DuckDuckGo's AI Offering

DuckDuckGo also offers its own AI product, Duck.ai. This service is free and does not require account creation. It provides access to various models, including Claude 4.5 Haiku from Anthropic, Llama 4 Scout from Meta, Small 3 24B from Mistral, and GPT-5 mini from OpenAI. All discussions are private, as DuckDuckGo removes the user's IP address before queries reach the model providers. Conversations are deleted within 30 days and are not used for AI training.

Gabriel Weinberg stated that DuckDuckGo respects not only user choice but also their privacy. "Everything you do on DuckDuckGo is private; we do not collect search histories or discussions, and nothing is used for AI training."

Popular AI Features

DuckDuckGo also offers AI features such as Search Assist and an AI image filter that excludes AI-generated images from search results. According to Kamyl Bazbaz, head of communications and policy at DuckDuckGo, these two AI features are among the company's most popular, despite their differing philosophies.

Bazbaz emphasized that users primarily seek the ability to choose. "People just want a choice," he said.