<![CDATA[DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode.]]>DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. Is anyone surprised by this result?

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/d07cd711-b6f9-46e5-a812-5ec5eb10c5b2/duckduckgo-s-ai-free-search-saw-nearly-28-more-visits-in-the-week-following-google-s-insistence-that-people-love-ai-mode.RSS for NodeSat, 30 May 2026 17:52:43 GMTWed, 27 May 2026 17:57:48 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:31:28 GMT]]>@greenpepper22 @nixCraft for mobile use fdroid and install newpipe

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649380304147345https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649380304147345Thu, 28 May 2026 00:31:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:28:52 GMT]]>@nixCraft My head has been elsewhere. I've been using Safari/duck for years. I go there when Vivaldi hits a website that's blocked. I'm too lazy to go in.
It's worse installed ... I had no intention of doing that again. But it will be toasted and uninstalled shortly.

Ugh. People are just losing their brains.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116584758053727639/statuses/116649370087052225https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116584758053727639/statuses/116649370087052225Thu, 28 May 2026 00:28:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:17:28 GMT]]>@hidikem @nixCraft I might have to look into that

I am def a desktop user vs mobile user for youtube so that might be easier for getting around logins and app usage

Maps however I am full mobile and I’ve checked out some alternatives and google is still miles ahead of anyone in terms of UI last time I checked. That one I might be stuck in for a while.

Gmail I gotta change, but email clients seem much easier to switch

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649325271574128https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649325271574128Thu, 28 May 2026 00:17:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:10:11 GMT]]>@greenpepper22 @nixCraft for youtube you can try to move out when possible and use alternative front end, like piped or invidious for the one you cannot live without.

So you use youtube ... without youtube.

Me i let youtube website app behind when they started to "force" login to prove you are not a bot (not like google own recapcha for this purpose).

So i use alt front end to bypass this bullying to accept their crappy TOS.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649296612356132https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649296612356132Thu, 28 May 2026 00:10:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:02:16 GMT]]>@hidikem @nixCraft ahhh so I’m just lucky and they haven’t foisted it upon me yet. I’ll have to check it out again in a few weeks then

I am slowly trying to de-google my life, but goddamn some the services are still useful and straightforward to use. YouTube and maps in particular are pretty up there, but I could probably stand to watch a lot less youtube so maybe ill have to end that for my mental health

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649265482830140https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649265482830140Thu, 28 May 2026 00:02:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Thu, 28 May 2026 00:01:01 GMT]]>@wyliecoyoteuk @shaedrich @nixCraft but DDG is not a search engine tough ... they simply are a Bing front-end

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649260601762872https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649260601762872Thu, 28 May 2026 00:01:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 23:59:46 GMT]]>@Darkphoenix @nixCraft so you in fact did it on bing as DDG is bing with an extra step

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649255649574094https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649255649574094Wed, 27 May 2026 23:59:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 23:59:05 GMT]]>@greenpepper22 @nixCraft they anounced it in their google I/O and started rolling out in the US

The time it's expended (and the cache pass) it can take week / month before it's completly rolled out).

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649253006268186https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649253006268186Wed, 27 May 2026 23:59:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 23:57:40 GMT]]>@nixCraft Duckduckgo is bing, and when microslop follow google lead they also are dead.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649247380701250https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://piaille.fr/ap/users/116466111769788233/statuses/116649247380701250Wed, 27 May 2026 23:57:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 23:35:14 GMT]]>@nixCraft I gotta be honest, when I go to google.com to search, which isn’t my default I’ve been using ecosia for years, I still just see normal search results and get a list of links to various sites. I see a new tab for “AI mode” but it’s not the default

Am I missing something with all this? The news I see makes it sound like old google search isn’t available anymore, but that doesn’t match with what I see, are folks out there seeing the AI stuff as the default?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649159175221780https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/greenpepper22/statuses/116649159175221780Wed, 27 May 2026 23:35:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 23:10:13 GMT]]>@nixCraft

It's also time NOT to let Giggle or its peers buy DuckDuckGo and turn it into the dog's breakfast it serves up instead of a privacy-friendly browser.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/huntingdon/statuses/116649060809992850https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/huntingdon/statuses/116649060809992850Wed, 27 May 2026 23:10:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:43:48 GMT]]>@nixCraft I like this but I wish DuckDuckGo did not conflate usage with "installs" like this – as if the only way to change search engine is to install a new browser…

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/torgo/statuses/116648956950762464https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/torgo/statuses/116648956950762464Wed, 27 May 2026 22:43:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:37:34 GMT]]>@nixCraft grep the binaries (main and support libraries) of your fav internet browser for "google" I bet it comes up more than a few times.

This isn't good.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/RueNahcMohr/statuses/116648932470794157https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/RueNahcMohr/statuses/116648932470794157Wed, 27 May 2026 22:37:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:31:30 GMT]]>@nixCraft@mastodon.social
Have DuckDuckGo considered switching their AI powered "Search Assistant" to "On Demand" by default, then?
https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures
No?
🙃]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://nya.one/notes/ams7dgkljui405mchttps://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://nya.one/notes/ams7dgkljui405mcWed, 27 May 2026 22:31:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:24:13 GMT]]>@wyliecoyoteuk @nixCraft I never said, Firefox was perfect. But so isn't DDG. That's all I was trying to say.

Glass houses don't need to be identical for it to be advisable not to throw stones from within.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648879972299921https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648879972299921Wed, 27 May 2026 22:24:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:22:47 GMT]]>@shaedrich @nixCraft Yes, but when you do, it almost begs you not to " But you'll lose all these useful things☆, are you sure?" and you need to confirm it, so not a single kill switch, after all.
This is despite the results of a user survey that overwhelmingly dismissed AI in the browser.
I am not saying that either of them are right to do this, just pointing out the difference in the implementation.

☆Most of which aren't really that useful.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648874308063719https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648874308063719Wed, 27 May 2026 22:22:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:15:27 GMT]]>@wyliecoyoteuk @nixCraft Your post, I reacted to compares DDG with Firefox, not Google. Firefox let's you turn this off: With a single kill switch.

Sure, Mozilla stabbed its userbase in the back time and again by trying to equal Google, but this isn't that bad after all this time.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648845462206570https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648845462206570Wed, 27 May 2026 22:15:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:13:12 GMT]]>@syrupsplashin @nixCraft There's PeerTube, for example, but no, it won't replace YouTube in the foreseeable future

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648836629978609https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648836629978609Wed, 27 May 2026 22:13:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:13:09 GMT]]>@shaedrich @nixCraft At least they let you turn it off easily, unlike Chrome or google search.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648836457209948https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648836457209948Wed, 27 May 2026 22:13:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:12:15 GMT]]>@madsenandersc @Mustardfacial @nixCraft On mobile, yes. But desktop and mobile are very different animals in certain aspects.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648832860089309https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648832860089309Wed, 27 May 2026 22:12:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:09:18 GMT]]>@wyliecoyoteuk @nixCraft DDG's still on quite a high horse, saying "People are fleeing from a website that embraced AI, fleeing to us¹!"

¹ a website that embraced AI

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648821286713694https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648821286713694Wed, 27 May 2026 22:09:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:07:30 GMT]]>@shaedrich @nixCraft
I did not say that they weren't, I just pointed out that the process of turning it off is very different.
DDG also lets you turn it off in search.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648814245539937https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/wyliecoyoteuk/statuses/116648814245539937Wed, 27 May 2026 22:07:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:06:47 GMT]]>@Mustardfacial @nixCraft Are you really expecting Alphabet to die?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648811395873482https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/shaedrich/statuses/116648811395873482Wed, 27 May 2026 22:06:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search saw nearly 28% more visits in the week following Google's insistence that people love AI mode. on Wed, 27 May 2026 22:06:02 GMT]]>@gulfie
@nixCraft
Yeah seems like a weird brag when the difference between them is a button on the search bar.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/TheStoneDonkey/statuses/116648808454857227https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/TheStoneDonkey/statuses/116648808454857227Wed, 27 May 2026 22:06:02 GMT