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DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

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Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#202
post #199

Google has ~90% of search where DuckDuckGo has A ~30% jump of DuckDuckGo is about 0.3% of global search traffic, basically a rounding error for google. Still, it's an interesting signal, but not nearly enough to worry Google. If the jump had been 300% that would merit some thought.

I don't think you can even refer to google as search anymore when it spews bullshit rather than furnishing results

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#203

I actually like AI mode in Google. My main reason is if I just have a quick question it seems a lot quicker than logging into ChatGPT/Claude as I can just type it in the address bar. Of course DDG / others can do the exact same thing as they already have an AI mode. Maybe you can even set up ChatGPT as a search engine - not sure. The key for this use case is speed - it has to be nearly instant.

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Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#204
post #143

I actually like AI mode in Google. My main reason is if I just have a quick question it seems a lot quicker than logging into ChatGPT/Claude as I can just type it in the address bar. Of course DDG / others can do the exact same thing as they already have an AI mode. Maybe you can even set up ChatGPT as a search engine - not sure. The key for this use case is speed - it has to be nearly instant.

I'm as anti-Google as anyone out there. I block all their ads, refuse to pay for youtube, go out of my way to avoid their hardware, etc. But I have to admit AI mode is great. It's fast, free, not yet cluttered with ads, and useful. I treat it as a search engine that does a fuzzy search rather than the more literal text match search that we're used to. I recently bought a Bambu 3d printer after Reddit/HN drew my atten…

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Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#205
post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

They want to capture more of the value that was previously going to others. That's basically what this has all been leading to. Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? Now they are going to do the same to e-commerce. Either they are going to let customers buy their products through Google's interface, or they won't be discovered. No more o…

Why would anyone go to google anymore tho? If it doesn't furnish results it's just a chatbot

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#206
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Driving an increase in total queries is probably because instead of just Googling something and getting the right results like it was 10~ years ago, now you have to interrogate a chatbot or try multiple queries. I would think higher total queries is more an indicator that your search function isn't effective. I wonder how much the search results thing is related to language and locality. I have a hunch but I haven'…

It started when Google made a hard push to improve search for everyday people. They essentially nerfed "expert google skills" to bolster "noob google skills". Regular people are/were really bad at using google, so google moved towards showing what it thinks you want rather than what you want. They paved over the skill gap between people who understood keywords and word order, and people who just typed in a quasi legi…

> they seem to overwhelmingly use AI overviews now too.

Hard agree. The only thing I've ever witnessed another person do on Google (this is only an incredibly slight exaggeration) is:

1. Type a 'query' - either a brand/website name or some kind of stream of thought like "dishwasher error 03F" (without quotes)

2. Click or look at the very top thing in the results.

This used to mean 80% of the time they'd click the top ad, 20% the top organic result. Then they started putting non-clickable "answers" in that top spot, which would always be accepted as 'the right answer'. When those appeared, approximately no one would ever click any 'blue links.' These started out pretty reliable because they were just direct extracts from sites like IMDB: "Brad Pitt is 44 years old" etc.

Now it's like 60% of the time an ad, 40% of the time their bargain-basement-model "AI Overview" slop. Either way, approximately all users always just use whatever is on top and ignore everything else.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#207
post #194
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? I think this is a step beyond that - why should people be creating cooking websites when you can ask LLM how to cook given thing, while indeed, serving their own ads. It's the continuation of "we own content other people produce" policy

recall the pizza sauce glue trick, to stop cheese from sliding off. there are other such goodies like mashed potatoes with broken lightbulb gravy, or fiberglass omelette, enjoyed by beldar conehead. i wouldnt trust an AI for any recipe that i dont have personal experience with. the safety rails are not very strong yet.

I agree and this response was following OPs example. But the point still stands - the goal is to outsource, in a weird way, the results being served = Google as such wouldn't need to pay for content. Now, if accuracy of such sources doesn't matter (or is good enough) for casual user...

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#208
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? I think this is a step beyond that - why should people be creating cooking websites when you can ask LLM how to cook given thing, while indeed, serving their own ads. It's the continuation of "we own content other people produce" policy

You can also tell the LLM exactly what you have in the fridge or what allergies you have and get customized recipes. It’s just a better experience, 2026 is rough for a recipe site.

Is this mushroom edible.jpg

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#209
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case at least they could point out that end users got better results with AMP than they do with news sites w/o ad blockers. The AI results are just wrong so often I don't really get it.

The results are not wrong, they are AI. Google wants that to become a distinct thing that is neither. What's a better answer for Google than one that generates more usage? If we all push in the same direction we can make AI work, we just need to accept we will need to hold its hand for a while.

I think this is sarcastic but man some people really do have some wild defenses for LLM’s so I can’t be sure lol

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#210
post #199

Google has ~90% of search where DuckDuckGo has A ~30% jump of DuckDuckGo is about 0.3% of global search traffic, basically a rounding error for google. Still, it's an interesting signal, but not nearly enough to worry Google. If the jump had been 300% that would merit some thought.

0.3% is definitely not a ”rounding error”. For Google it would mean roughly $650M drop in revenue.
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