DuckDuckGo has seen a significant increase in app downloads following Google's recent overhaul of its search engine. The privacy-focused search engine reported a 30.5% week-over-week surge in U.S. app installs during the May 20 to May 25 period, compared to the previous week. The growth was sustained for six consecutive days, peaking at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install growth was even higher, with week-over-week growth hitting a 33% average, peaking at 69.9%. The company also noted a 22.7% week-over-week increase in traffic to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, which peaked at 27.7% on May 24.
The page turns off all AI features by default, including AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images. DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg stated that Google's changes have led to a decline in search quality, prompting users to seek alternatives. The search engine also offers its own AI product, Duck.ai, which provides access to models from various providers while maintaining user privacy.
Source: techcrunch
