DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search | TechCrunch
techcrunch.com
Google overhauled Search at I/O 2026, replacing blue links with AI agents. The backlash has been swift. DuckDuckGo app installs spiked 30% as users seek a way out.
  • YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    141·
    13 hours ago

    Thank you for this! I changed to duckduckgo just now and it took 5 seconds. Now to see if it works as well as Google.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.luEnglish
      20·
      10 hours ago

      The bangs are the addictive feature for me. You start by typing !w lemmy in the URL bar, with DDG already configured as the default search engine, and DDG will directly serve the search result for this term from Wikipedia. There are hundreds of them like !yt for YouTube or !gm for Google Maps, and the acronyms are intuitive. https://duckduckgo.com/bangs

      • Prathas@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        34 minutes ago

        Why… do you need to go through DDG for this? You can just set those custom search engines yourself in the browser without routing through DDG. They let you put any link (with %s in place of the query’s location in the URL) and almost any keybinding. I have w set to attempt to pull up the direct Wikipedia article on the query, c for Google Contacts, m for Google Maps (ugh, I’ve gotta figure out a way outta these Google snares…), etc.

    • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
      12·
      5 hours ago

      It doesn’t and when you discover that, try Kagi.

      People here love things to be free and in doing so, they recommend worse search engines.

      • Axolotl@feddit.itEnglish
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Is the search engine open source? Is it self-hostable? If the a answer to both questions, especially the first, is no, then it can be easly ignored tbh, and Kagi is also paid so it’s really a bad suggestion (unless you mention it), people ain’t gonna switch from free to paid that easly.

        I have to pay someone and then hope that they don’t sell my data? Hell nah;

        Before you say anything releated to DDG: no, i am not saying you should choose DDG, that it’s the better decision, the next best search engine, what i said is unreleated to DDG specifically

        • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
          1·
          20 minutes ago

          Well, I think its different for different users, with different economy and different motivations.

          Kagi has 70000 paying members, enough to be profitable without any ads or tracking. Since the results are literally Googles results but without ads, AI results or tracking, it’s worth paying for for some people who can.

          Ive been a paying member since 2023 and I feel good about supporting alternatives to Google with some lunch money. :) Because of me and the other users, there is a quality search engine that makes us happy and makes a profit without ads.

          But we are all different. When I was a teenager I wouldn’t have paid for this. Had no money and wanted my money for other things.