DuckDuckGo iOS Installs Spike 70% After Google I/O
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- DuckDuckGo's U.S. mobile app installs rose 18.1% week-over-week on average after Google's I/O event, where the search giant unveiled a wave of new AI features.
- iOS installs grew even faster at 33% week-over-week, spiking to 69.9% on May 25, according to data DuckDuckGo shared with Mashable.
- Traffic to noai.duckduckgo.com — DuckDuckGo's search page with all AI features turned off by default — climbed 22.7% week-over-week on average, peaking at 27.7% on May 24.
- DuckDuckGo said the growth was U.S.-specific and held through Memorial Day weekend, a period when search traffic typically drops.
- CEO Gabriel Weinberg accused Google of "force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," saying its results are "getting worse, not better" as a result.
- DuckDuckGo offers its own AI products (Search Assist, Duck.AI) and an AI Image Filter, but frames all of them as strictly optional — a positioning it is now leaning into as users defect from Google.
Why it matters: DuckDuckGo captured a measurable, U.S.-specific user flight from Google in the days after I/O, with iOS installs briefly jumping nearly 70% and its AI-free search page logging double-digit traffic gains even through the Memorial Day lull. The most direct material consequence: DuckDuckGo, long a niche privacy alternative, now has a live, growing user base it can claim is actively rejecting forced AI search — giving it a marketing wedge against Google that did not exist a month ago.
