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DuckDuckGo's 'No AI' Search Traffic Climbs as Users Reject Google's AI Overhaul

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Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has seen a surge in demand for its "No AI" search option in the wake of Google's May 19th I/O announcements. Google debuted a new "intelligent" search box reimagined with AI. It features AI suggestions as an upgrade to autocomplete, support for follow-up questions, expanded Personal Intelligence for connecting Gmail and Google Photos, and Search agents.

duckduckgo-no-ai.jpg

DuckDuckGo told MacRumors that visits to its No AI search page more than tripled after Google's announcement. Traffic hit the 3x mark on May 28th, and has continued to climb. Visits have averaged around 84 percent above baseline consistently since May 19.

DuckDuckGo is embracing demand for No AI search options, and it is promoting new extensions available for Chrome and Firefox that set No AI search as the default.

No AI search has no AI-assisted answers, no chat interface, and it surfaces fewer AI images. DuckDuckGo can be set as the default search engine on Apple devices, but not the specific No AI page. DuckDuckGo has its own AI tools, but they are turned off for people who opt for the No AI experience.

DuckDuckGo plans to add No AI search settings to its original extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera in the near future.

Along with DuckDuckGo, there are other privacy-focused search engine options that minimize AI results. Paid search engine Kagi is one example, with no visible AI information unless you opt for AI tools. Kagi is $5 per month for a limited number of searches, and $10 a month for unlimited searches.

Because it is a paid search engine, it does not have ads and it does not collect and sell user data.

Article Link: DuckDuckGo's 'No AI' Search Traffic Climbs as Users Reject Google's AI Overhaul
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/29/duckduckgo-no-ai-search/
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DuckDuckGo can be set as the default search engine on Apple devices, but not the specific No AI page
Click to expand...

I don’t know how a ‘specific page’ could even be a default search engine, but if you have DDG as your default search engine, you can select the no AI options at DuckDuckGo.com which will then apply to all your in-browser searches.
 
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Just learned about the `-AI` suffix to bypass AI search results.

There is a 10x energy penalty for these AI results, and I actively don't want them. They don't return what I'm actually looking for, and they layer on what feels like unsolicited judgment. The engines understand the search — just not my motivation.

If I'm watching the true crime genre and an offender stalks a target, searching for *why* a criminal would do that returns links to Crisis Groups and therapists rather than the actual answer. The algorithm mistakes curiosity for distress.

For those reasons, I'd personally prefer not to have a data broker network insert boilerplate at the top of my results — useless content served at an environmental penalty. But sure, I should probably build products for these companies, who have been releasing multi-year-old betas they're still trying to convince us are revolutionary.

I'm also switching to DuckDuckGo, simply to see if it's finally good enough.

Remember when products solved real problems — or enabled experiences that simply weren't possible before?

I picked up a BlackBerry because it let me stay mobile while responding to people at the home office. That product created a realistic, reliable workflow that empowered a genuinely mobile workforce.

I got a Gmail account because it synced natively with BlackBerry, or later with iOS. Google or Gmail solved an actual problem.

What we're seeing now is a collection of solutions in search of problems, dressed up in gobbledygook. "Agentic AI to enable autocomplete, support for follow-up questions, expanded Personal Intelligence for connecting Gmail and Google Photos, and Search agents." ... Huh?

Make solutions valuable and useful, and consumers will adopt them. The slow adoption isn't a messaging problem — it's because the concepts themselves don't hold up.

I spent years in this industry selling PCs and chips. When someone starts in with the AI word salad — say, from Microsoft — I think to myself: if you didn't have a Microsoft badge, and people heard you stringing together this many non sequiturs in public, and had the confidence to realize they aren't face to face with someone more intelligent, they'd quietly wonder if the MS employee were having a medical episode. Or one would ask them if they know where to get what they are on.

AI has a place, and better more capable programming will benefit many. Having AI tools to make AI ads to sell fake AI products on Fakebook has me wondering when Elon's robots are going to start eating humans for food. None of this makes sense at the scale any of these companies are fleecing the world. Driverless cars and drone delivery, those are advancements that will benefit from AI. The intersection of AI and you being the product, not so much...
 
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I have stopped feeding my life to Google years ago. Also Google has fake Ads and search suggestions that contain malware.

I've been using DDG, and lately I use Duck.ai as needed; both have proven to be very effective.
And also have my own AI Model and Agent that works locally and can do web searches on my behalf when necessary.
 
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Well, I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for a few years now, and I’m quite satisfied with it. I also added their VPN, which I’ve found to be very effective, without any noticeable impact on performance. 🤷‍♂️
 
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Wow. I switched around that time as well. It’s just…enough already. Left Apple Maps the same day too. Everything either has to be an ad or mining my data to serve up better ads.
 
I switched DuckDuckGo as my main search engine a while back and, I have been using they AI tools, this is a great news. I just set turned on all those settings.
I will still use their AI by visiting Duck.ia
 
TimmyNoInnovation said:
Just learned about the `-AI` suffix to bypass AI search results.

There is a 10x energy penalty for these AI results, and I actively don't want them. They don't return what I'm actually looking for, and they layer on what feels like unsolicited judgment. The engines understand the search — just not my motivation.

If I'm watching True Crime and an offender stalks a target, searching for *why* a criminal would do that returns links to Crisis Groups and therapists rather than the actual answer. The algorithm mistakes curiosity for distress.

For those reasons, I'd personally prefer not to have a data broker network insert boilerplate at the top of my results — useless content served at an environmental penalty. But sure, I should probably build products for these companies, who have been releasing multi-year-old betas they're still trying to convince us are revolutionary.

I'm also switching to DuckDuckGo, simply to see if it's finally good enough.

Remember when products solved real problems — or enabled experiences that simply weren't possible before?

I picked up a BlackBerry because it let me stay mobile while responding to people at the home office. That product created a realistic, reliable workflow that empowered a genuinely mobile workforce.

I got a Gmail account because it synced natively with BlackBerry, or later with iOS. Google or Gmail solved an actual problem.

What we're seeing now is a collection of solutions in search of problems, dressed up in gobbledygook. "Agentic AI to enable autocomplete, support for follow-up questions, expanded Personal Intelligence for connecting Gmail and Google Photos, and Search agents." ... Huh?

Make solutions valuable and useful, and consumers will adopt them. The slow adoption isn't a messaging problem — it's because the concepts themselves don't hold up.

I spent years in this industry selling PCs and chips. When someone starts in with the AI word salad — say, from Microsoft — I think to myself: if you didn't have a Microsoft badge, and people heard you stringing together this many non sequiturs in public, and had the confidence to realize they aren't face to face with someone more intelligent, they'd quietly wonder if the MS employee were having a medical episode. Or one would ask them if they know where to get what they are on.

AI has a place, and better more capable programming will benefit many. Having AI tools to make AI ads to sell fake AI products on Fakebook has me wondering when Elon's robots are going to start eating humans for food. None of this makes sense at the scale any of these companies are fleecing the world. Driverless cars and drone delivery, those are advancements that will benefit from AI. The intersection of AI and you being the product, not so much...
Click to expand...
Can’t imagine someone would write this much. Happy Friday!
 
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TimmyNoInnovation said:
Just learned about the `-AI` suffix to bypass AI search results.

There is a 10x energy penalty for these AI results, and I actively don't want them. They don't return what I'm actually looking for, and they layer on what feels like unsolicited judgment. The engines understand the search — just not my motivation.

If I'm watching True Crime and an offender stalks a target, searching for *why* a criminal would do that returns links to Crisis Groups and therapists rather than the actual answer. The algorithm mistakes curiosity for distress.

For those reasons, I'd personally prefer not to have a data broker network insert boilerplate at the top of my results — useless content served at an environmental penalty. But sure, I should probably build products for these companies, who have been releasing multi-year-old betas they're still trying to convince us are revolutionary.

I'm also switching to DuckDuckGo, simply to see if it's finally good enough.

Remember when products solved real problems — or enabled experiences that simply weren't possible before?

I picked up a BlackBerry because it let me stay mobile while responding to people at the home office. That product created a realistic, reliable workflow that empowered a genuinely mobile workforce.

I got a Gmail account because it synced natively with BlackBerry, or later with iOS. Google or Gmail solved an actual problem.

What we're seeing now is a collection of solutions in search of problems, dressed up in gobbledygook. "Agentic AI to enable autocomplete, support for follow-up questions, expanded Personal Intelligence for connecting Gmail and Google Photos, and Search agents." ... Huh?

Make solutions valuable and useful, and consumers will adopt them. The slow adoption isn't a messaging problem — it's because the concepts themselves don't hold up.

I spent years in this industry selling PCs and chips. When someone starts in with the AI word salad — say, from Microsoft — I think to myself: if you didn't have a Microsoft badge, and people heard you stringing together this many non sequiturs in public, and had the confidence to realize they aren't face to face with someone more intelligent, they'd quietly wonder if the MS employee were having a medical episode. Or one would ask them if they know where to get what they are on.

AI has a place, and better more capable programming will benefit many. Having AI tools to make AI ads to sell fake AI products on Fakebook has me wondering when Elon's robots are going to start eating humans for food. None of this makes sense at the scale any of these companies are fleecing the world. Driverless cars and drone delivery, those are advancements that will benefit from AI. The intersection of AI and you being the product, not so much...
Click to expand...
Now this is a legit take on AI. A material critique while seeing its potential.

It’s nice to see some people have a mind not be so one tracked with it. If more people discussed it this way we might get somewhere.
 
Powerguru said:
Can’t imagine someone would write this much. Happy Friday!
Click to expand...
Not sure you have to imagine it, you experienced it. Takes some about as long to produce two sentences as it took me to articulate what you read and run through AI to polish…

Was there something else, say something more direct you wanted to say?
 
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