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DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search
(techcrunch.com)
Disable my AD blocker.... Na I'd rather not read the article
this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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With ublock it opens normally. Also by disabling javascript, which is kinda ironic
Luckily 10 minutes after you posted that, another commenter posted the full article in plain text, in the comments here.
Thats depressing. % stats like this always oversell it. There are probably not many people installing duckduckgo so a 30% increase is a small handful of users. I'd expect like 500% if there was actual pushback.
50 million+ installs on Android, so it's not a tiny number.
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I like Duckduckgo been using it a while, they have a tor based search page as well which is another thing I like.
Wouldn't say they are anti-ai but at least you get the option to turn it off.
Wouldn’t say they are anti-ai but at least you get the option to turn it off.
Best you can hope for these days, really.
The phone app I use to turn my lights on and off is now calling itself an "AI life assistant" and has an AI prompt box front and center that I can't get rid of. But at least I can ignore that and still use the real function. Which, to be clear, is a fucking light switch. I use this app exclusively for turning a single light on or off. It does not need a LLM 'assistant' built in. But that's just what you get these days -- it's shoved into everything.
Apparently I'm the Luddite here for sticking with the light switch on the wall that has always just worked. ;p
I exaggerate slightly, I guess. It turns the light on and off and also changes colors.
It's definitely possible to do color changing LED lighting without an app. Half of my room is lit that way, and I love it. But it's more expensive and more complicated to install, so when I went for a second light, I just went with the app-controlled bullshit.
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but at least you get the option to turn it off
That's also an option with google, you know.
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I made a video on Google alternatives a month or so ago. There are chapters in the description if you want info but don't want to watch.
That's great but...are people really downloading an app to search? Or are they talking about DDG browser?
AI probably told them it was the easiest way
I hope this takes off so DDG improves their search engine. I've tried to switch, but 2/3 of the time the results are off target and I end up back at Google anyway.
I've been using it for a couple of year now and I only double check Google maybe 1% of the time. And most of those times, I also can't find what I am looking for on Google. I also can't go back after getting used to the ! commands.
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I tried ddg too and wasn't super happy, especially not when searching in a different language. I switched to Qwant and I'm very happy with it so can recommend trying that. There are other search engine options as well
That's Bing's fault.
If you use the Voyager app, you can turn on “Always use reader mode” in the settings. It strips away the JavaScript and you won’t see those annoying messages.
It works it 95% of the articles, but there are a few that still have issues.
Thank you for this. 🩷
Edit: not that Apple is a huge turd and it seems you must use safari for this work work on iOS
I need to get a Linux phone
Editx2:
Incredible. I’m dine with the internet today.
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Are people already getting these AI-only, blue-link-less Google results? Mine are still normal.
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The amount of absolutely undue shit ddg got for innovating on par with literally every other search engine is ridiculous.
Kagi introduced the same AI search and got exactly zero shit.
Assuming this is about duck.ai, I didn't know they got shit for it. People I've talked to generally enjoy having that option available. It's free and about as private as you can get with the current LLM chatbots, unless you self host one yourself.
At least until Confer gets off the ground. Once that happens, I'm hoping DDG switches to a similar model
I don't keep up with the drama. I use Kagi and disabled the AI. Simple as that. Does DDG make it easy to disable?
Yes a simple one time settings toggle
or https://noai.duckduckgo.com/
the search box on that page can be added to the browser's search engine choices.. in firefox, right click it and 'add search engine'
I've seen Kagi get plenty of shit online for their AI features.
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Installs? it's a website...
They have a browser app as well for mobile
And a desktop browser too
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.
I can't imagine randomly hearing something like this in the wild. (It's not clear from the article if the author attended Google I/O in person and overheard the conversation there.)
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