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You've used Google Search the same way for 25 years. Type something, get a list of links, click one.
That era just ended.
At Google I/O last month, the company announced it's replacing its traditional search box with an AI-powered conversational engine. Instead of a list of links, Google now serves up AI-generated answers first, with built-in follow-up questions. It's calling it "the biggest upgrade to Search in over 25 years."
Not everyone is thrilled.
Here's what happened
- DuckDuckGo saw US app installs jump an average of 18% week-over-week after Google's announcement, peaking at 30% growth on Memorial Day
- iPhone installs were even wilder, averaging 33% growth with a single-day peak of nearly 70%
- Traffic to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page (noai.duckduckgo.com) grew 22.7% in the same window
- DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg put it plainly: "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out. Their results are getting worse, not better."
DuckDuckGo wasn't the only one picking up strays. Brave Search and Kagi also saw traffic bumps in the same window. Even Bing has quietly grown from 2.8% to nearly 5% global market share since 2023, partly on the back of its Copilot integration. The pattern is the same everywhere: users who feel pushed around by Google are at least looking around.
Why this matters
To calibrate expectations, Google holds roughly 90% of global search.
DuckDuckGo sits at about 2% in the US, processing around 100-145 million searches a day vs Google's 8.5 billion. A 70% install spike is a loud signal in a very small room.
Google didn't engage directly with the criticism. Instead, a spokesperson pointed back to VP of Search Elizabeth Reid's I/O blog post, which argues that AI Mode now has 1 billion monthly users and that queries are doubling every quarter. Reid's framing is that this isn't a forced transition; it's users choosing AI search on their own. They also noted that Google already offers a "web" filter for anyone who wants plain results without AI.
The irony? DuckDuckGo has AI features too. They're just toggleable. Visit noai.duckduckgo.com, and you get the 2005 internet experience with zero AI in sight.
Our take
Both things can be true at once. Google's AI search is genuinely popular at scale, and a real slice of users hate what it's become. The fight isn't over whether AI belongs in search. It's over who gets to decide how much. Google's answer is we do. DuckDuckGo's answer is you do.
Think of it as two funerals for search as we knew it. The first was when ads arrived and turned an honest list of links into a commercial battlefield; suddenly, half the page was someone paying to be there. The second is happening now. AI doesn't just push ads at you; it skips the links entirely and hands you a pre-chewed answer. You're no longer searching. You're waiting.
DuckDuckGo's surge is people realizing they miss the act of actually looking for something. But that version of search has been gone for a while. AI just held the second service.
Editor’s note: This content originally ran in the newsletter of our sister publication, The Neuron. To read more from The Neuron, sign up for its newsletter here.