Google’s decision to make artificial intelligence a mandatory part of its search engine has prompted a migration of dissatisfied users to alternative services. Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has seen a surge in mobile app installs amid the unveiling of new AI features from Google.
Google’s decision to make artificial intelligence a mandatory part of its search engine has prompted a migration of dissatisfied users to alternative services. Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has seen a surge in mobile app installs amid the unveiling of new AI features from Google.
As TechCrunch reports, citing official DuckDuckGo data, the number of mobile app installs in the US increased by an average of 18,1% between May 20 and 25 compared to the previous week.
The surge in popularity lasted for six consecutive days, peaking on May 25, when downloads jumped 30,5%. The dynamics were even more pronounced on the iOS platform, with an average weekly increase of 33%, peaking at nearly 70%. This trend is especially telling, as it occurred over the Memorial Day weekend in the US, when overall internet traffic is typically down.
The main reason for user dissatisfaction was Google’s new policy. At its annual I/O developer conference, the company announced that the classic list of blue links in search results would be replaced by AI agents. They automatically generate answers, perform tasks, and monitor information in the background, leaving users with virtually no opportunity to return to the familiar interface.
«Google is forcibly implementing artificial intelligence without giving them the opportunity to opt out. As a result, their results are getting worse, not better. We want to be a place where users have control and can decide how actively they want to use AI,» commented DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg.
Interestingly, DuckDuckGo has a separate version of its search engine — noai.duckduckgo.com. On this page, by default, all AI features, including smart replies and image generation, are completely disabled. Against the backdrop of Google’s updates, the traffic to this «non-AI» version increased by 22,7% in a week, and the peak traffic figure on May 24 recorded an increase of 27,7%.
Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo has its own AI assistant, Duck.ai, which provides free and completely private access to leading language models such as Claude 4.5 Haiku, Llama 4 Scout, Small 3 24B, and GPT-5 mini. In addition, the search engine offers Search Assist (similar to Google’s AI Overviews) and AI Image Filter to clean search results from generated images.
«People just want to have a choice,» summed up DuckDuckGo’s director of communications and policy, Kamil Bazbaz, adding that both AI features are among the most popular in their product, despite their different philosophies.
Earlier, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, who became the new head of Mozilla, published his vision for the development of the Firefox browser, which involves the introduction of artificial intelligence. This did not go down well with users who choose the browser because of the lack of AI.
Mozilla then announced that Firefox would soon allow users to block all current and future generative AI features. They would also be able to choose which AI features to turn off and which to keep.
