DuckDuckGo's 'No AI' Search Traffic Climbs as Users Reject Google's AI Overhaul

Just learned about the `-AI` suffix to bypass AI search results.

There is a 10x energy penalty for these AI results, and I actively don't want them. They don't return what I'm actually looking for, and they layer on what feels like unsolicited judgment. The engines understand the search — just not my motivation.

If I'm watching the true crime genre and an offender stalks a target, searching for *why* a criminal would do that returns links to Crisis Groups and therapists rather than the actual answer. The algorithm mistakes curiosity for distress.

For those reasons, I'd personally prefer not to have a data broker network insert boilerplate at the top of my results — useless content served at an environmental penalty. But sure, I should probably build products for these companies, who have been releasing multi-year-old betas they're still trying to convince us are revolutionary.

I'm also switching to DuckDuckGo, simply to see if it's finally good enough.

Remember when products solved real problems — or enabled experiences that simply weren't possible before?

I picked up a BlackBerry because it let me stay mobile while responding to people at the home office. That product created a realistic, reliable workflow that empowered a genuinely mobile workforce.

I got a Gmail account because it synced natively with BlackBerry, or later with iOS. Google or Gmail solved an actual problem.

What we're seeing now is a collection of solutions in search of problems, dressed up in gobbledygook. "Agentic AI to enable autocomplete, support for follow-up questions, expanded Personal Intelligence for connecting Gmail and Google Photos, and Search agents." ... Huh?

Make solutions valuable and useful, and consumers will adopt them. The slow adoption isn't a messaging problem — it's because the concepts themselves don't hold up.

I spent years in this industry selling PCs and chips. When someone starts in with the AI word salad — say, from Microsoft — I think to myself: if you didn't have a Microsoft badge, and people heard you stringing together this many non sequiturs in public, and had the confidence to realize they aren't face to face with someone more intelligent, they'd quietly wonder if the MS employee were having a medical episode. Or one would ask them if they know where to get what they are on.

AI has a place, and better more capable programming will benefit many. Having AI tools to make AI ads to sell fake AI products on Fakebook has me wondering when Elon's robots are going to start eating humans for food. None of this makes sense at the scale any of these companies are fleecing the world. Driverless cars and drone delivery, those are advancements that will benefit from AI. The intersection of AI and you being the product, not so much...

Sounds like it’s a good time to give DuckDuckGo another try. I didn’t like it last time, but that was ages ago, back when Google search was still good!

I have stopped feeding my life to Google years ago. Also Google has fake Ads and search suggestions that contain malware.

I've been using DDG, and lately I use Duck.ai as needed; both have proven to be very effective.
And also have my own AI Model and Agent that works locally and can do web searches on my behalf when necessary.

I used DDG about a year ago but switched back to Google as their search results were simply better.
Time to give it another try!

Yeah, Google search results have gotten really poor for me in the last six months especially - it no longer surfaces pages that used to be at the top of searches I regularly do for work. DDG is pretty good now.

lol this is like users jumping X to bluesky. they'll come crawling back after they realize they've made a mistake.

"yeahhhh I rather have terrible search results than to just scroll down a little more for accurate links"

Nope. Two things.

1. At least for me, I went to Bluesky fairly early on. Kept my "X" account for a long while in case I was sent a link I could at least look at it. Then a few months ago I just deleted my "X" account because **** Elon. I have not missed it one bit, it's a cesspool now.
2. I've been using Duck Duck go for a while now too. Sometimes I go to google, but only if I can't get the answer I need from Duck Duck go. But Google keeps getting worse and Duck Duck go keeps getting better. I find myself going to google less and less. Now it's mostly when I want google maps, or my Gmail and I just go straight to those.

Well, I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for a few years now, and I’m quite satisfied with it. I also added their VPN, which I’ve found to be very effective, without any noticeable impact on performance. 🤷‍♂️