Last week, after Google announced its huge overhaul to Search, 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 — and the data backs it up.

The Google I/O 2026 Announcement

At Google's annual developer conference, I/O, the company transformed its search box into a conversational engine that expands for longer queries, anticipates user intent, and autocompletes searches. Rather than just returning a list of links, it now uses AI Overviews to answer questions directly first. This marks a significant shift from the classic "ten blue links" approach that defined search for two decades.

Google also unveiled a more seamless AI Mode, allowing users to ask follow-up questions within AI Overviews, making the search experience more like a conversation than a simple query-response system. The changes were positioned as a way to make search more intuitive and efficient, especially for complex or nuanced questions.

While a Google spokesperson noted that AI Overviews have existed for two years and AI Mode is not the default, the backlash has been sharp and immediate. Users and industry observers alike have raised concerns about the erosion of user control and the potential for the open web to suffer as more traffic is kept within Google's ecosystem rather than being driven to external sites.

The DuckDuckGo Surge

DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine that has long positioned itself as the anti-Google, is now capitalizing on this discontent. The company reported that U.S. app installs went up 18.1% week-over-week on average during the period of May 20 to May 25, compared to the prior week of May 13 to May 18. Importantly, this growth was sustained for six consecutive days and peaked at a remarkable 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install was even higher, with week-over-week growth averaging 33% and peaking at an astonishing 69.9%.

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. That page turns off every AI feature — like AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images — by default, offering a pure, classic search experience free from generative AI interference. A DuckDuckGo spokesperson pointed out that Google does offer a web filter for those who just want to see a list of blue links, but many users may not be aware of it or may find the default hard to escape.

DuckDuckGo continued to gain users over the Memorial Day weekend, a period when it usually sees a dip in traffic, indicating that the momentum is not just a temporary spike but a sustained trend. Third-party data confirms this: 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.

Why Users Are Fleeing Google

"Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement, referring to Google's Search overhaul. "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."

Weinberg's remarks resonate with a growing segment of the internet population that is growing weary of AI integration in every product. Critics argue that AI Overviews surface inaccurate responses, take away control from users who might not want to use AI, and overcomplicate simple tasks — for example, trying to Google the word "disregard" now yields a complex AI-generated answer rather than a simple dictionary result.

Some have warned the changes could kill the open web by reducing the need to click through to external websites. Others worry about privacy implications, as AI models require vast amounts of user data to improve. DuckDuckGo's pitch — that it respects user choice and privacy — has found an eager audience among those who feel overwhelmed by the pace of AI adoption.

DuckDuckGo's Own AI Offerings

Despite its criticism of Google, DuckDuckGo is not entirely anti-AI. The company offers its own AI product called Duck.ai. It is free and does not require users to create an account, but provides access to models such as Anthropic's Claude 4.5 Haiku, Meta's Llama 4 Scout, Mistral's Small 3 24B, 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.

"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 also offers Search Assist, which is similar to Google's AI overviews, and an AI Image Filter that filters out AI-created images from search results. Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo's chief communications and policy officer, noted that both of those AI features are among the company's most popular, despite their differing ethos. "People just want a choice," Bazbaz said.

Historical Context: The Search Antitrust Battle

DuckDuckGo's rise is not happening in a vacuum. During Google's search antitrust trial in 2023, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg testified that Google's exclusive default search contracts harmed its ability to pitch itself as the default on other browsers. The trial highlighted how Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple, Mozilla, and other companies to be the default search engine, creating massive barriers to entry for competitors. DuckDuckGo, despite its privacy promise, has historically struggled to capture more than around 2% of the U.S. search market.

The current AI backlash may provide a window of opportunity that antitrust remedies have so far failed to deliver. As users become more conscious of the trade-offs between convenience and control, DuckDuckGo's brand of privacy-first, user-control-focused search could see sustained growth.

The Broader Implications for Search and AI

The shift also raises questions about the future of search in an AI-dominated landscape. While Google remains the dominant force, with AI Mode reportedly surpassing one billion monthly users within a year of its debut, the backlash suggests that a significant cohort of users feels alienated. A Google spokesperson pointed to a blog post by VP of search Elizabeth Reid, in which she stated that queries in AI Mode have more than doubled every quarter since launch, indicating strong adoption. But the user exodus to DuckDuckGo suggests that growth figures may mask underlying dissatisfaction.

DuckDuckGo's gains — particularly the 30% install growth and the 69.9% iOS peak — are small in absolute numbers compared to Google's billions of users, but they represent a clear signal. The search market, long considered a monopoly, may be more fluid than previously thought when user preferences are strongly challenged.

Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo continues to iterate. Its noai page, which strips away all AI features, has become a rallying point for those who want nothing to do with AI in their search experience. At the same time, its selective use of private AI tools shows a nuanced approach: AI is not inherently bad, but users should have the power to choose when and how it is used.

For now, the trend is clear: a growing number of people are voting with their downloads. As one woman on the phone put it, "Google just isn't Google anymore." DuckDuckGo is hoping to become what Google once was — a simple, user-friendly search engine that respects privacy and puts the user in control.

Source: TechCrunch News