This AI-free Google alternative is surging in popularity - how to try it for yourself
DuckDuckGo is experiencing a significant increase in users as people seek alternatives to Google's AI-driven search results. The platform offers a traditional search experience without AI-generated content, appealing to those frustrated with inaccuracies in AI overviews. Recent data shows a notable rise in DuckDuckGo app installations and visits to its no-AI search page following Google's AI announcements.
- ▪DuckDuckGo has seen a surge in users and installs since Google's AI announcements at I/O 2026.
- ▪The platform reported a 30% increase in week-over-week installs in the US on May 25.
- ▪Visits to DuckDuckGo's no-AI search page rose by an average of 22.7% week-over-week.
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| Original publisher | ZDNet |
| Canonical URL | https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-ai-free-search-engine-is-getting-more-popular-heres-why-you-should-try-it/ |
| Publication time | Wed, 27 May 2026 18:01:42 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-27T18:08:02.537Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-27T18:08:02.537Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | 0eC5uJoE-7gl |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Innovation Home Innovation Artificial Intelligence This AI-free Google alternative is surging in popularity - how to try it for yourself DuckDuckGo is an AI-free alternative to Google's AI-based overviews, attracting more people who prefer traditional search results. Written by Lance Whitney, ContributorContributor May 27, 2026 at 11:01 a.m. PT Lance Whitney/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on GoogleZDNET's key takeawaysDuckDuckGo has seen a surge in users and installs.You can easily use DuckDuckGo without any AI.This makes it a good alternative to Google's AI Overviews.Do you use Google for your searches but don't want all the AI slop? There is an alternative that's growing in popularity, and its name is DuckDuckGo.Like many companies, Google has been adding more AI to its…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at ZDNet.