Live data from Hacker News

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

pcgamer.com

111–120 of 556 posts

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

#111
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…

I don't see search and AI as fundamentally distinct things. Usually I just want an answer.

If you don't care about the facticity of the answer, AI is less clicks, granted.

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

#112
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :(

> because they have fear of missing out on AI That's been my experience too, both with friends and coworkers. It would seem that the negative sentiment around AI is largely an internet phenomenon. I've yet to run into a hardcore "AI skeptic" irl. People seem either neutral, or enthusiastic about it.

I've yet to meet anyone outside that likes AI except for manager or when people are pretending for their bosses at work. It became a survival tactic.

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

#113
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 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

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

#114

"Google’s AI Overviews Don't Have an Off Switch. 4 Tricks to Return to Traditional Web Results" - https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/googles-ai-overviews-dont-h...

[flagged]

As a bot yes...it offends me terribly, at a deep sigmoidic spiritual level...

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

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Google, users are adopting it. They say AI mode is the most popular feature they've ever introduced, and is driving an increase in total search queries. >Just one year after its debut, AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. As people have realized just how much more Search can do for them, they’re searching more than ever before — so m…

> They say AI mode is the most popular feature they've ever introduced, and is driving an increase in total search queries. Technically, all the people who google "how do I disable this shitty AI mode in google" would count as "driving an increase in total search queries." An easy way to make a feature popular is to force it on everyone. Then you can pat yourself on the back when 100% of your users are using it!

I remember when Internet Explorer was the most used browser. The fact that people were just using it to download Chrome doesn't matter to stats.

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

#116
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…

> but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search.

Not me. I really appreciate having both results simultaneously. I can scan the first couple sentences of the AI response, and if that already has the answer then great. I can expand it to see if there's more.

Or, if I see that the AI mode didn't understand my brief search query, I just glance at the search results below.

And often times, when I do need to follow a link, I find the source result links in the AI mode to be a better quality than the search result links.

It's the best of both worlds.

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

#117
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…

I don't see search and AI as fundamentally distinct things. Usually I just want an answer.

For the same reason I read a book instead of just the plot summary on the back cover

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

#118
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :(

> because they have fear of missing out on AI That's been my experience too, both with friends and coworkers. It would seem that the negative sentiment around AI is largely an internet phenomenon. I've yet to run into a hardcore "AI skeptic" irl. People seem either neutral, or enthusiastic about it.

I'm in my 50s and all my friends and family hate AI. My parents in their 70s can't really comprehend it. They got used to search and want nothing to do with AI. Some company is trying to build an AI data center where they live, and they're livid about it.

Personally, I like it sometimes, but I'm a techie and understand the limitations, and I dislike not being given options to use or not use it.

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

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see search and AI as fundamentally distinct things. Usually I just want an answer.

If you don't care about the facticity of the answer, AI is less clicks, granted.

I dont think about less keypresses though - google search would let you type two words and get the thing you know you want, an ai search doesn't really fit the mode that old school search folks were using

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

#120
post #21

> Just for a start, visits to its AI-free search page noai.duckduckgo.com between May 20 to May 25 are said to have increased by 22.7% on average week-on-week, with the figures peaking May 24 at 27.7%. > The DuckDuckGo mobile app saw installs spike in the US by 18.1% on average compared to the previous week. TechCrunch reported this growth was sustained over six days, peaking at 30.5% on May 25. An even greater numbe…

Because it's an ad for DuckDuckGo and PCGamer loves anti-AI engagement bait outrage articles because they bring clicks from outraged "gamers" and this brings them ad revenue, too so you are reading an ad for an ad.
Post reply on HN