DuckDuckGo installs surge 30% as users reject being 'force-fed' Google's AI Search overhaul

DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being 'force-fed' Google's AI Search | TechCrunch

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. At I/O, Google's annual developer conference, the company said its traditional list of blue links is being replaced by an AI agent that answers queries, executes tasks, and runs background monitoring agents. The backlash has been sharp. Some have argued it will kill the open web, while others shared concerns that AI overviews surface inaccurate responses and take away control from users who might not want to use AI. It also overcomplicates simple things. Just try to Google the word "disregard." In response to Google's changes, many have begun defecting to DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused alternative that has never been able to break past Google's dominance, accounting for only around 2% of the U.S. search market. 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. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," Weinberg said Tuesday 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." Now, it seems that DuckDuckGo is beginning to benefit as consumers flee AI. DuckDuckGo said U.S. app installs went up 18.1% week-over-week on average during the May 20 to May 25 period, compared to May 13 to May 18. The company said that growth was sustained for six consecutive days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install is even higher, with week-over-week growth hitting a 33% average, peaking at 69.9%. The search engine also said visits to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, averaged 22.7% WoW growth, peaking at 27.7% on May 24. The page turns off every AI feature, like AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images, by default. The company said the trend is stronger in the U.S, and that DuckDuckGo continued to gain users over the Memorial Day weekend, when it usually sees a dip in traffic. DuckDuckGo offers its own AI product called Duck.ai. It's free and doesn't require users to make an account, but provides access to models, including 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, said both of those AI features are among the company's most popular, despite their differing ethos. "People just want a choice," Bazbaz said. TechCrunch has reached out to Google for comment.

DuckDuckGo's Popular 'No AI' Search Engine Is Now Easier to Access

Macy has been working for CNET for coming on 2 years. Prior to CNET, Macy received a North Carolina College Media Association award in sports writing. At Google I/O in May, Google made it apparent that it is going all-in on AI with the world's most popular search engine. And ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is still pushing its own AI browser. And yet people seem to be turning more and more to DuckDuckGo's strictly AI-free search engine, which the privacy-focused company says is now it's easier to access. DuckDuckGo's new browser extensions for Chrome or Firefox allow you to make its anti-AI search experience, noai.duckduckgo.com, your default search engine. Here's how. How to set up the extension Set up is easy, taking seconds and just a few clicks. You can open DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page and click the "Add our No-AI Search Extension." From there, you will be taken to a separate page to add the extensions to Chrome and Firefox, which will allow you to search the internet without any AI-generated answers, no chatbots and fewer AI images. You can also open the duckduckgo.com home page and click "Set As Default Search." If you already have a DuckDuckGo web browser, your AI settings will be preserved, even if you clear your browser history. DuckDuckGo sees steady rise in popularity As the AI industry continues to expand, it's apparent not everyone wants AI baked into their search experience. A DuckDuckGo representative recently told CNET that the company's browser saw 21% more installations between May 20 and May 26 in the US than the week prior, coinciding with Google's big search announcements. Browser installs on iOS also rose 33%, including 69% on Memorial Day. The major difference between DuckDuckGo's web browser and its competitors' seems to be the ability to opt in or out of AI. While many companies are making AI the default, DuckDuckGo instead gives you the option to choose when you interact with its AI. The company isn't anti-AI as a whole -- still operating a chatbot with increased privacy and access to many popular models -- but it is giving users the final say over how much AI they want. Google, meanwhile, is fundamentally changing its search engine to center its Gemini AI even more. At Google I/O, its annual developer conference last month, the company announced a slew of updates coming to Search: a reimagined search box, AI agents that can research on your behalf and Gemini 3.5 Flash becoming the new default model behind AI Mode. All of these updates combine to show that Google is making AI the core of its future strategy and is fully embracing the era of agentic AI.

People Are Flocking to DuckDuckGo as Google Leans Heavily Into AI

Alex Valdes from Bellevue, Washington has been pumping content into the Internet river for quite a while, including stints at MSNBC.com, MSN, Bing, MoneyTalksNews, Tipico and more. He admits to being somewhat fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam back in the Roaring '90s. These ducks are looking mighty. Search engine and web browser developer DuckDuckGo said this week that it's getting a surge of new customers, and the increase just happens to coincide with Google's I/O developer conference. DuckDuckGo told CNET that, in the US, it saw 21% more installations of its browser from May 20 through May 26 -- including a spike of 37% on Tuesday -- as compared with May 13 through May 19. Browser installs on iOS rose 33%, including 69% on Memorial Day. Why the jump? Google held its I/O conference from May 19 to May 20 and announced a bunch of AI initiatives. One of those initiatives was an expanded AI-driven search interface that can deliver expanded answers to longer queries. People can also drop videos, pictures and files into the search box for a "multimodal" search. Beyond the installations, DuckDuckGo told CNET there was a 500% increase in mentions about its company across all social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X, among others. DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement that Google is "force-feeding AI with no way to opt out" and pointed to a report that indicated Google searches are getting worse. "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 said. A representative for Google did not respond to a request for comment. Read more: Google I/O Left Me Confused: Who Benefits From All This AI? Google doesn't have an official, stated way of turning off AI-assisted search results, but CNET's Nelson Aguilar does have an "easy workaround" to get the old Google search back, which he details here. DuckDuckGo offers flexibility in how much AI customers will get. The browser has a Search Assist function that uses AI to help answer search queries, and users can designate in its settings how often they want it to appear, including Never. You can also go AI-free with noai.duckduckgo.com search, which doesn't have AI-assisted answers or AI-generated images. This page had a 23% increase in searches during the period May 20 through May 25 compared to the period between May 13 through May 18, the company said. "People just want a choice," said Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo's chief communications and policy officer. DuckDuckGo has a chatbot feature, Duck.ai, that allows people to choose among models from OpenAI, Anthropic and others. The browser also features an Ask AI button to the right of the search bar, which you can use to get AI-generated answers. Weinberg said it doesn't collect search or chat histories and that "nothing is used for AI training." User privacy was how DuckDuckGo marketed itself back when it launched in 2008. The Pennsylvania-based company doesn't track customer data, record search histories or log IP addresses, allowing customers to avoid being targeted by ads based on their browsing patterns. Cloud network and cybersecurity company Cloudflare said DuckDuckGo was the No. 2 most used search engine on mobile and No. 3 overall in the US in December 2025.

DuckDuckGo wins over a surge of users as Google pushes further into AI Search

* DuckDuckGo experienced a US install surge after Google I/O -- 18.1% over six days; iPhone installs are up 33% over the average. * Usage of the alternative search engine's no-AI search page increased 22.7%. * DuckDuckGo includes optional AI but allows users to disable it. DuckDuckGo, an alternative, small-scale search engine, is reporting "a sustained surge" in US-based installations in the week following Google's very AI-focused I/O developer conference. Among a flurry of announcements like its plan to take on OpenClaw with Google Spark, Gemini Omni, its turn anything into an AI video platform, and more information about its upcoming Android XR platform, the tech giant also revealed new agentic Google Search features and a dynamic search box, effectively killing off traditional Google Search. As with many recent AI-related announcements, the reaction was mixed, and it seems a small subset of Google users are tired of the tech giant's focus on AI (via Engadget). According to DuckDuckGo, US installs of the search engine's app are up 18.1% over six consecutive days, peaking at 30.5% on May 25th. The majority of new users are on iOS, with iPhone installations showing an average week-over-week growth of 33%, peaking at 69.9% on May 25th. DuckDuckGo says the growth is in response to Google's I/O AI announcements The alternative search engine also offers AI features (but at least they can be turned off) Visits to http://noai.duckduckgo.com/, DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page, also grew 22.7% week-over-week, peaking at 27.7 percent on May 24th. DuckDuckGo says that the growth it has experienced in the US is several times larger than its international expansion, and that it believes the surge is in "response to Google's US-centric announcement." "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," said DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, in a statement. "As 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. That's why we're seeing a spike in people coming to DuckDuckGo this week, it's as simple as that." Look, DuckDuckGo isn't actually going to take on Google in a meaningful way -- it's just not possible. Still, it's nice to see at least some backlash against Google's never-ending quest to add AI to what feels like absolutely everything, including Search. DuckDuckGo also includes AI features in its search engine, including functionality that's strikingly similar to Google's often-incorrect AI Overviews. That said, these features can be turned off entirely using the search engine's settings. The Steam Deck's price has increased from $549 to $789 as hardware woes continue The shortages have ended, for a high price. Posts By Simon Batt

DuckDuckGo reports a surge in installs after Google put more AI into Search - Engadget

DuckDuckGo has reported "a sustained surge" of installs in the US in the week that followed Google's I/O developer conference, where the bigger company announced more AI features for Search. The search engine company says its app installs in the US were up an average of 18.1 percent for six consecutive days, peaking at 30.5 percent on May 25. Most of the new users are on iOS, with installs on iPhones showing an average growth of 33 percent week-on-week and also peaking on May 25 at 69.9 percent. In addition, visits to its noai.duckduckgo.com website also grew an average of 22.7 percent week-on-week, with its peak growth of 27.7 percent happening on May 24. DuckDuckGo says its growth in the US over the past week was multiple times bigger than the international rate, suggesting that surge of installs was in "response to Google's US-centric announcement" and not a global trend. It was also able to sustain the growth through Memorial Day weekend, which historically leads to lower activity. At I/O 2026, Google announced several new AI-powered Search features, including the Intelligent Search Box. Unlike the ordinary Search box, the new one can fit complex queries and can process videos, images, files and even Chrome tabs as input for people's searches. It's worth noting that the new Search box is rolling out everywhere where AI Mode is available, not just in the US. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers are also getting access to AI Search agents, including ones that run 24/7 in the background to gather information for users. We've seen quite a few posts on Reddit from people making the switch to DuckDuckGo after Google's announcements. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," said DuckDuckGo CEO CEO Gabriel Weinberg. "As 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. That's why we're seeing a spike in people coming to DuckDuckGo this week, it's as simple as that." To be clear, DuckDuckGo also has AI features for its search engine, including ones similar to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. However, they can easily be switched off in settings, and people can opt to visit the noai.duckduckgo.com website where all AI features are off by default.

DuckDuckGo installs jumped 18% after Google killed the blue links. On Apple devices, the spike hit 70%.

DuckDuckGo installs surged 18% after Google's AI search overhaul. Apple device installs peaked at 70%. Its AI-free search page traffic rose 23%. DuckDuckGo US app installs jumped by an average of 18% week over week between 20 and 25 May. The growth sustained for six consecutive days, peaking at 30% on Memorial Day Monday. On Apple devices, weekly install growth reached 33%, with a single-day peak of almost 70%. The surge came days after Google announced sweeping changes to its search engine at I/O 2026. The company plans to replace its traditional list of blue links with AI-powered tools that answer questions directly, complete tasks, and run background monitoring agents. Some users saw this as the end of the search experience they had used for two decades. Traffic to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, also rose. Visitor numbers averaged 23% growth week over week, peaking at 28% on Sunday. The page disables AI-generated answers entirely, giving users the plain results list that Google is moving away from. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," CEO Gabriel Weinberg said. "As a result their results are getting worse, not better." He said the company believes frustrated users are actively seeking alternatives. The exodus accelerated after it was revealed earlier this month that Google Chrome is installing a 4 GB AI model called Gemini Nano on user devices without explicit permission or notification. The combination of mandatory AI in search and undisclosed AI models on devices created a trust problem that DuckDuckGo is directly benefiting from. DuckDuckGo is not positioning itself as anti-AI. "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 said. The company operates its own AI service, duck.ai, which provides access to models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, and OpenAI while promising private conversations that are not used for training. The distinction is choice versus compulsion. Google is making AI the default with no opt-out. DuckDuckGo is offering AI as an option alongside a traditional search experience. The users moving between the two are not necessarily anti-AI. They are anti-mandatory. The shift from traditional search to AI-generated answers is creating new business categories. Peec AI hit $10 million ARR in six months by helping brands track their visibility in ChatGPT and other AI search results. The same structural change that is driving DuckDuckGo installs is driving demand for generative engine optimisation tools. Apple's iOS 27 will let users choose rival AI models for Siri queries and set third-party services as defaults for streaming. The direction across the industry is toward user choice on AI, not mandatory integration. Google is moving in the opposite direction. DuckDuckGo partly relies on search results supplied by Microsoft's Bing index, alongside its own web crawler and other sources. Some Google sceptics regard the Bing dependency with suspicion. But the company adds its own privacy protections and ranking systems on top of the underlying infrastructure. The numbers are small relative to Google's scale. DuckDuckGo has roughly 3% of the US search market. An 18% increase in installs does not threaten Google's dominance. But the signal matters more than the share. When a search engine's biggest product announcement in years sends users to a competitor, the product is solving a problem the users did not ask to have. Google's Gemini has grown its share of AI web traffic from 5.7% to 21.5% over the past twelve months. ChatGPT's share declined from 86.7% to 64.5%. The AI search market is expanding rapidly. The question is whether Google's decision to merge AI into its core search product will accelerate that expansion or accelerate the departure of users who wanted search, not an AI assistant they did not request.

DuckDuckGo's booming anti-AI search just got a Chrome extension

The extensions allow users to easily set AI-free search as their default, giving them greater control over their search experience. DuckDuckGo is continuing to build on its AI-free search experience by launching new extensions for Chrome and Firefox. These extensions make it easier to set the company's AI-free search page to be the default search option in both browsers, reports TechCrunch. "NO AI" is the first thing you see on DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page, which has zero AI-generated answers, zero chat suggestions, and fewer AI-generated images in its search results. This move comes at a time when interest in DuckDuckGo's platform is surging after Google's recent announcement of its own major AI initiative for its search engine. According to DuckDuckGo, traffic to its AI-free search page has increased by over 30 percent in a week. At the same time, DuckDuckGo is not entirely opposed to AI. The company offers its own AI chatbot and subscription services with access to various AI models. This move simply comes down to one principle: DuckDuckGo wants to give users greater control.

DuckDuckGo sees iPhone installs spike following AI-heavy Google I/O - 9to5Mac

Following the AI-heavy Search announcements at last week's Google I/O, DuckDuckGo says it has seen a notable and sustained surge in U.S. users, including a sharp jump in iPhone app installs. Here are the details. Last week, during the Google I/O keynote, the company announced a series of changes coming to its users over the coming weeks and months, most of which are related to AI being more integrated across its ecosystem. You can certainly read all about it on 9to5Google's coverage of the event, but when it comes to search specifically, Google announced an overhaul of the search box, accompanied by a press release calling this "a new ear for AI Search," and the "biggest upgrade (to Google's Search box) in over 25 years." And while some of the new features, such as custom generative UI, are poised to help users visualize and better understand what they are searching for, Google's decision to push AI even deeper into Search has also drawn criticism from users who want a more traditional search experience. In light of that, DuckDuckGo tells 9to5Mac that it has seen a sustained surge in U.S. users since Google I/O, with iOS leading all platforms. The company says iOS installs in the U.S. were up 33% week over week on average, compared with 18.1% growth overall. DuckDuckGo also says visits to noai.duckduckgo.com, the AI-free version of its search platform, have also surged, with an average week-over-week growth of 22.7%. Interestingly, DuckDuckGo notes that "US growth ran multiples of the international rate," adding that these numbers not only held, but accelerated "through Memorial Day weekend, when activity typically dips." According to DuckDuckGo, these numbers suggest that, rather than being a global trend, the recent surge could be "a response to Google's US-centric announcement." That said, DuckDuckGo has also been experimenting with AI features, while frequently going out of its way to make sure it communicates that they are optional, and can be avoided altogether via noai.duckduckgo.com.

Traffic triples to DuckDuckGo 'No AI' Search as Google doubles down on AI

People are flocking to the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo as Google goes all-in on its expanded AI-driven search interface. At Google's I/O conference last week, the company rolled out its biggest search upgrade in decades, replacing the standard page of links with an AI-powered search agent that does the leg work for you, complete with support for follow-up questions. Considering how often the company's flagship AI Overview feature still struggles with hallucinations, users weren't thrilled at the news. Many are jumping ship for DuckDuckGo, which lets users tailor how much AI they want in their search experience. A representative for DuckDuckGo told CNET that, in the U.S., installations jumped 21% week over week from May 20 through May 26, directly following Google's announcement of several AI initiatives. Browser installs on iOS spiked by 33%, including 69% on Memorial Day. The company also told MacRumors that traffic for its No AI search page has tripled since Google's announcement. This feature ditches AI-assisted answers, AI-generated images, and DuckDuckGo's own AI tools from results altogether, letting you browse Search pages as you always have. We've reached out to clarify those figures, and will update this article once we hear back. DuckDuckGo's standard browser offers a Search Assist function that uses AI to help answer search queries, though you can choose how often you want it to appear or nix it entirely. Similar to Google, there's also an Ask AI button to the right of the search bar, which you can use to get AI-generated answers. According to cloud network and cybersecurity company Cloudflare, DuckDuckGo was the No. 2 most-used search engine on mobile and No. 3 overall in the U.S. in December 2025. Given the clear appetite for AI-free search, DuckDuckGo plans to add No AI search settings to its original extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera sometime in the near future. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok. Finally, you can visit our dedicated Tom's Guide Savings Squad hub for expert help on getting the best products for less.

DuckDuckGo is growing thanks to Google users frustrated by AI features

After Google announced new AI search features, competitor DuckDuckGo's app downloads boomed. Credit: Ascannio / Shutterstock Google users are flocking to the alternative search engine DuckDuckGo. According to data provided to Mashable by DuckDuckGo, U.S. installs of the search engine's mobile app are up 18.1 percent week-over-week on average following Google's big I/O event, where the search giant introduced a slew of new AI features into its search product. DuckDuckGo app installs peaked at 33 percent growth on May 25. Just looking at DuckDuckGo's iOS installs, the growth following Google I/O is even more astonishing, with 33 percent week-over-week growth and peaking at a whopping 69.9 percent on May 25. According to DuckDuckGo, traffic also spiked to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com. This DuckDuckGo search page has every AI featured turned off by default and saw an average of 22.7 week-over-week growth following Google I/O, with a peak of 27.7 percent on May 24. DuckDuckGo said it wasn't only the timeframe that was relevant, either. The growth happened mainly in the U.S. following Google's "U.S. centric announcement" and does not indicate a coincidental global trend. The alternative search engine said this growth held throughout the Memorial Day weekend, when traffic usually tends to drop as well. Are you an Apple superfan? Enter Mashable's Big Guessing Game to win prizes. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," DuckDuckGo Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement. "As 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. That's why we're seeing a spike in people coming to DuckDuckGo this week, it's as simple as that." For years, DuckDuckGo has enticed privacy-seeking users to switch from Google to its alternative with a focus on a pro-privacy feature set. Now, it looks like DuckDuckGo has found a market among users tired of AI taking over the internet as well. "Not only do we respect user choice, but also user privacy: everything you do in DuckDuckGo is private, we don't collect search histories or chats and nothing is used for AI training," Weinberg said. DuckDuckGo has previously launched AI features for its search engine. Search Assist, for example, is DuckDuckGo's version of Google's AI Overviews. The search engine also has a Duck.AI product, which is similar to Google's AI Mode. However, DuckDuckGo has maintained that these AI features are optional and never forced on users. The company has also launched features that actively remove AI as well, such as AI Image Filter, which filters out AI images from DuckDuckGo's search results.

DuckDuckGo Launched Duck AI. Now Their Hit Product is 'No AI'

As a result, DuckDuckGo launched No-AI Search extensions for Chrome and Firefox on June 1, letting users set the AI-free page as their permanent default with one click. DuckDuckGo spent the better part of 2024 building Duck.ai, an anonymous chatbot that lets you chat privately with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. And now, just this past weekend, it launched a Chrome extension to help you pretend AI doesn't exist. And things seem to be working out. The extension, called DuckDuckGo No-AI Search, sets your default search engine to noai.duckduckgo.com -- DuckDuckGo's AI-free subdomain. You get the search index, same results, same interface, minus the AI-generated image results, the AI Assist summaries, and every other feature the company added in the past two years. A Firefox version launched the same day. If you later want to toggle individual AI features on or off rather than block everything, DuckDuckGo's full-featured Privacy Essentials extension -- which also blocks trackers -- lets you do that. The timing wasn't accidental. Google unveiled what it called "the biggest upgrade to its Search box in over 25 years" at I/O earlier in May -- replacing traditional blue links with AI agents, expanding text boxes, and conversational summaries that answer questions before you even finish typing. A lot of people hated it. DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg was, of course, one of them. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out. As a result, their results are getting worse, not better," Weinberg told Paul Therrot. "We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want." Traffic to noai.duckduckgo.com tripled on May 28 -- a new record -- and has been averaging 84% above its normal baseline ever since. DuckDuckGo app installs in the U.S. jumped 18.1% week-over-week on average between May 20 and May 25, with iOS installs peaking at 69.9% on a single day, per TechCrunch. "Since Google revealed its plans for an AI search overhaul, visits to our "No AI" search page have tripled...and they're still rising," the official Duckduckgo account tweeted. AI Sickness DuckDuckGo isn't the only company making money off the anti-AI crowd. Brave launched Brave Origin in April, a $59.99 one-time purchase that strips its browser down to the basics: ad blocking, Brave Shields, and nothing else. No Leo AI assistant, no crypto wallet, no Brave Rewards, no VPN, no telemetry, no Brave News. People seem to be happy to pay for a version of the browser that has had things taken out of it. Brave CTO Brian Bondy acknowledged the obvious tension: The company generates revenue from Leo AI, Brave Wallet, Brave Talk, its VPN, and crypto partnerships. Origin removes all of that. The $60 fee compensates for that lost revenue. It's available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS -- and, in a fun twist, completely free on Linux, where the open-source community knows how to do it by themselves anyway. Mozilla, meanwhile, is taking the subtler route. Project Nova, Firefox's first major redesign since 2021, will include a single Settings toggle that disables every current and future AI feature at once. The redesign is expected to roll out later this year. However, Mozilla isn't abandoning AI either -- its free built-in VPN and summarization tools stay available for users who want them -- but it's framing "off by default" as a competitive advantage. DuckDuckGo's actual position on AI is more nuanced than the extension implies. The company still offers Duck.ai, a private chatbot with access to GPT-4o mini, Claude 4.5 Haiku, Meta's Llama 4 Scout, and Mistral Small 3 24B for free within daily limits, with premium plans unlocking Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5.2, and -- on the top tier -- Claude Opus. It also built DuckAssist for AI-generated search summaries. The statement on the extension's Chrome listing -- "AI should be optional" -- is both a product philosophy and a direct acknowledgment that DuckDuckGo has plenty of AI to opt out of. What all three companies are selling, in different packaging, is the same thing: the right to use software that doesn't assume you want AI.

'Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt ': DuckDuckGo CEO says installs are surging after Google I/O

Google spent much of Google I/O 2026 making it clear that AI is now the future of search. But according to DuckDuckGo, not everyone is thrilled about it. The privacy-focused search company says it saw a significant spike in installs and traffic following Google's developer conference, particularly among users looking for ways to avoid AI-generated search features altogether. According to data shared with us by DuckDuckGo, U.S. installs increased an average of 18.1% week-over-week between May 20 and May 25, with growth sustained for six straight days and peaking at 30.5% on May 25. The company says iOS growth was even stronger, averaging 33% week-over-week and peaking at nearly 70% on May 25. Meanwhile, visits to noai.duckduckgo.com -- DuckDuckGo's version of search with all AI features disabled by default -- rose an average of 22.7% week-over-week, peaking at 27.7% on May 24. The timing is hard to ignore At Google I/O, Google doubled down on AI-powered search experiences, including expanded AI Overviews, conversational AI search tools and deeper Gemini integration across its ecosystem. Interestingly, DuckDuckGo says U.S. growth dramatically outpaced international markets immediately after Google I/O, suggesting at least some users were reacting specifically to Google's AI-heavy announcements. "US growth ran multiples of the international rate, which suggests this is a response to Google's US-centric announcement, not a global trend," the company said. For some users, those changes represent the future of the internet. For others, they may represent something else entirely: a loss of control. DuckDuckGo's messaging around the surge is interesting because the company is not positioning itself as anti-AI. In fact, it actively uses AI in several of its own search features. Instead, the company says the issue is whether users can opt out. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out. As result, their results are getting worse, not better," said Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo. "We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want. That's why we're seeing a spike in people coming to DuckDuckGo this week, it's as simple as that." Weinberg also emphasizes privacy concerns, saying DuckDuckGo does not collect search histories or chats for AI training. The company's communications chief, Kamyl Bazbaz, argued that users are embracing AI features selectively rather than rejecting them outright. "One of the most popular search features we've launched in years is a filter that removes AI images from image results," Bazbaz said. "The other most popular feature? Search Assist, which uses AI to anonymously generate answers to search queries at the top of the search page. People just want a choice." AI search backlash may be becoming mainstream Until recently, most criticism of AI-heavy search experiences came from publishers, artists, regulators and privacy advocates. But the broader public conversation appears to be shifting to every day users. From AI-generated slop and hallucinations, inaccurate summaries and the increasingly synthetic feel of the web have become more common over the past year as companies race to integrate generative AI into search engines, browsers and operating systems. Of course, a few days of growth doesn't suddenly threaten Google's dominance. But the numbers do hint at something Silicon Valley has mostly ignored so far: the simple fact that some users may not want AI injected into every search experience by default. Let me know in the comments: Do you like Google's new AI tools in its browser? Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok.

Google's AI-First Overhaul Annoys Users So Much They Are Actually Switching Search Engines

But as we all know, AI can gets things wrong. When asked how to keep cheese from sliding off pizza, it suggested glue, a response that immediately went viral. (At least it recommended non-toxic glue.) And, even without an actual hallucination, sometimes AI search responses aren't quite what you wanted. For instance, when people tried searching the term "disregard." The result is that some users want less AI, or at least more control, in their search results. And they're voting with their keystrokes by trying out search engines that aren't Google. For decades, Google has dominated search. It still gets about 90 percent of search traffic worldwide, and 85 percent in the United States. But after the company announced even more AI-centric search results, one competitor, DuckDuckGo, saw a sharp uptick in usage. The company told Business Insider that US installs of its app were up 20 percent overall in the week after Google's announcement, and up 33 percent for iOS users. And visits to its noai.duckduckgo.com page, where AI is disabled by default, were up more than 20 percent. "Force-feeding AI." "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement to Business Insider. "We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want."