The number of DuckDuckGo app installations in the United States increased after Google unveiled a major search update focused on AI. This was reported by TechCrunch, citing company data.
At the Google I/O conference, it was announced that the traditional list of search results would gradually give way to an AI agent that answers queries, performs tasks, and launches background assistants for monitoring. This drew criticism from users and experts who fear a loss of control over search results, errors in responses, and pressure on the open web.
In response, the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo recorded a rise in installations in the US from May 20 to 25, averaging an 18.1% increase compared to the previous week. The positive trend continued for six consecutive days, peaking at 30.5% on May 25.
The situation is even better on iOS, with growth compared to the previous week averaging 33% and reaching a peak of around 69%.
Traffic also increased to the page noai.duckduckgo.com, where all AI features, including responses and image generation, are disabled by default. Visits to the page rose by an average of 22.7%.
DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg stated that Google is “forcing AI without an opt-out option.” According to him, users want to decide for themselves how actively to use such features.
However, DuckDuckGo is not completely abandoning artificial intelligence. The company offers the Duck.ai service without mandatory registration. It provides access to models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, and OpenAI. The company claims that users’ IP addresses are hidden before sending requests to model providers, conversations are deleted within 30 days, and are not used for training.
The search engine also has Search Assist (similar to Google’s AI responses) and an AI Image Filter to exclude generated images from results. DuckDuckGo representative Kamyl Bazbaz noted that these features remain popular, but the key factor for users is the ability to choose.
According to StatCounter, DuckDuckGo holds about 2% of the search market in the US. The company previously claimed that Google’s dominance is reinforced by exclusive agreements that make its search engine the default in browsers.
Earlier in May, Google tightened its policy on the use of search AI tools following a public experiment by BBC journalist Thomas Germain.