{"id":730671,"date":"2026-05-31T16:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/duckduckgo-installs-jumped-18-after-google-killed-the-blue-links-on-apple-devices-the-spike-hit-70\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:40:17","slug":"duckduckgo-installs-jumped-18-after-google-killed-the-blue-links-on-apple-devices-the-spike-hit-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/duckduckgo-installs-jumped-18-after-google-killed-the-blue-links-on-apple-devices-the-spike-hit-70\/","title":{"rendered":"DuckDuckGo installs jumped 18% after Google killed the blue links. On Apple devices, the spike hit 70%."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24911f308e3\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24911f308e3\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/duckduckgo-installs-jumped-18-after-google-killed-the-blue-links-on-apple-devices-the-spike-hit-70\/#TLDR\" >TL;DR<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.thenextweb.com\/2026\/05\/duckduckgo-user-surge-google-ai-search-overhaul.avif\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-main-content\">\n<div class=\"postContent-tldr\">\n<h4 class=\"postContent-offsetTitle\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"TLDR\"><\/span>TL;DR<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p> <em>DuckDuckGo installs surged 18% after Google\u2019s AI search overhaul. <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le device installs peaked at 70%. Its AI-free search page traffic rose 23%.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cybernews.com\/ai-news\/duckduckgo-user-surge-google-ai-search-overhaul\/?utm_source=cn_facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=cybernews&amp;utm_content=post&amp;source=cn_facebook&amp;medium=social&amp;campaign=cybernews&amp;content=post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DuckDuckGo US app installs jumped by an average of 18%<\/a> 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%.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic to DuckDuckGo\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inarticle-wrapper channel-cta\">\n<div class=\"ica-text\">\n<p class=\"ica-text__title\">TNW City Coworking space &#8211; Where your best work happens<\/p>\n<p>A workspace designed for growth, collaboration, and endless networking opportunities in the heart of tech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201c<em>Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out,<\/em>\u201d CEO Gabriel Weinberg said. \u201c<em>As a result their results are getting worse, not better.<\/em>\u201d He said the company believes frustrated users are actively seeking alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>DuckDuckGo is not positioning itself as anti-AI. \u201c<em>We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want,<\/em>\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>DuckDuckGo partly relies on search results supplied by Microsoft\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers are small relative to Google\u2019s scale. DuckDuckGo has roughly 3% of the US search market. An 18% increase in installs does not threaten Google\u2019s dominance. But the signal matters more than the share. When a search engine\u2019s biggest product announcement in years sends users to a competitor, the product is solving a problem the users did not ask to have.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s Gemini has grown its share of AI web traffic from 5.7% to 21.5% over the past twelve months. ChatGPT\u2019s share declined from 86.7% to 64.5%. The AI search market is expanding rapidly. The question is whether Google\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/duckduckgo-user-surge-google-ai-search-overhaul\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TL;DR DuckDuckGo installs surged 18% after Google\u2019s 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&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":730672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.thenextweb.com\/2026\/05\/duckduckgo-user-surge-google-ai-search-overhaul.avif","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}