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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

#271

Post by scottmcmac »

thewebguyd wrote: post #67
patates wrote: 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.

A recent NBC News poll gave "AI" a -20% net approval rating. If you're in the U.S., the people you run into IRL are kinda weird.

(I didn't quickly find polls for the rest of the world)

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

#272

Post by burnte »

al_borland wrote: post #5

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. One was just messaging me this morning about alternatives to Google search and maps. He ended up downloading DuckDuckGo. If Google isn’t carefully they’re going to push people away from their golden goose.

> If Google isn’t carefully they’re going to push people away from their golden goose.

Too late, people have started moving. They have to act fast to stop the migration from growing.

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

#273

Post by josefritzishere »

jeffbee wrote: post #173
John7878781 wrote: post #4

AI mode isn't that terrible.

AI summary isn't bad at all, but people don't understand it and Google hasn't explained it very well. It is just RAG. It is a summarization of the documents that are on the first page of the SERP. People think it is answering their question independently, but that's not what it does. It takes the docs that are top ranked from web search and digests them. The corresponding "AI overview" feature of Gmail is amazing. It…

People understand it. They dislike it. Users want what they want. When Software companies purport to know better... they do themselves and their customers a disservice.

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

#274

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

chasd00 wrote: post #218

I’d like to see the total number of visits. Also, I hope no one is reading this as a 28% reduction in Google use.

About a third of the comments on this site are in this genre of: imagine the typical reader is dumber than you so that you can explain things to them.

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

#275

Post by hansmayer »

alberto467 wrote: post #132
eithed wrote: 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.

> You can also tell the LLM exactly what

You can - but it's not advisable, not in the least.

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

#276

Post by spencerflem »

lisplist wrote: post #14

I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me. For some queries, Google still surfaces better results, but DDG is good enough that I don't really miss it. The only Google service I haven't been able to replace is YouTube - no real alternative. I still use Google Maps as well, but could probably switch to Apple maps without missing much. For hiking trails, Apple Maps has often been superior. I briefly tr…

This is my experience as well.

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

#279

Post by Jensson »

floxy wrote: post #96
pesus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got the captcha issue as well? Seems like it's happening constantly now. I suspect Apple Private Relay has something to do with it, but I'm not sure.

Nope, not exclusively an Apple thing, since I don't use any Apple products at home, and have had an uptick in captcha requests.

If Claude starts sending queries to Google then Google makes you use captcha from that IP, likely you have been using such a bot and it sent queries without you knowing.

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

#280

Post by cogogo »

rolph wrote: post #194
eithed wrote: 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.

If you are half decent at cooking it is actually pretty helpful to explore cooking something new. Just like coding it is nice to get specific answers to your specific question and it is pretty easy to reason about the quality using your own experience.
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