Google announced a few days ago that it will substantially reshape its Search product by adding more artificial intelligence features. The changes were presented at the Google I/O conference and drew mixed reactions online, with a number of critical responses.
According to rival search engine DuckDuckGo, interest in its service in the United States rose noticeably in the week following the Google I/O announcements, suggesting that some users — at least temporarily — are looking for search options that are less infused with AI.
- Average increase: DuckDuckGo reported that interest in its search engine grew by an average of 18.1 percent over the six days after the Google announcement.
- Peak day: on May 25 the increase reached 30.5 percent.
Most of the new users were iPhone owners: Engadget noted that iOS installs were up an average of 33 percent compared with the previous week, and peaked at a 69.9 percent increase on May 25.
Interest in DuckDuckGo’s AI-free subpage, noai.duckduckgo.com, also rose, with an average increase of 22.7 percent according to the company.
There is not yet evidence of a global trend: Google’s Search overhaul will initially roll out in the United States, and the observed effects are concentrated there. It is also important to note that Google retains a very large market share, so a short-term uptick for DuckDuckGo is unlikely by itself to meaningfully unsettle the overall market; a lasting shift would require multiple factors to align over time.
Overall, DuckDuckGo’s figures indicate that user concerns and preferences can drive temporary traffic increases, especially around major product announcements from dominant players.
