DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode • Hacker News Board

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

#441

Post by ThunderSizzle » Thu, May 28, 2026, 10:44 AM UTC

sznio wrote: post #422

godelski wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but Search is still the consumer facing product that brings people to Google and keeps them there. And let's not forget, these are the same people that when searching for "eBay" will put an ad at the top of the results, linking to eBay, and then place eBay as the top search result. I've found it hilarious that every single search engine does the same thing. You can do it even in Apple's App Store too. (Not seeing t…

>But why the fuck should any company pay for an ad when the user explicitly searched for their product? If you don't buy out the top-place for the query, someone else will. In a better case a competitor - imagine Facebook Marketplace being the top result for "ebay". In the worst - a phishing site. The latter happens quite often for software searches.

Right, but that's because Google permits that. OP is saying Google should simply stop permitting advertising over the real answer.

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

#442

Post by cogogo » Thu, May 28, 2026, 10:46 AM UTC

goosejuice wrote: post #365

cogogo wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the similarity is I know exactly what I want to do but cannot really remember syntax (coding) or key variables (cooking) like temp and time. But I have enough experience to know if the output makes sense. Either one I can ask an llm a specific question and get a somewhat reliable specific answer that I feel comfortable parsing… this is actually one of the reasons I think I am eventually going to be on the local…

In terms of temp and time surely if you know enough to judge it's correctness, you would not need it in the first place? Code correctness is rather objective and easily testable. Cooking is rather subjective and only testable with great effort and time. I just checked 4 models on a 4lb pork shoulder in an oven. Flash was super off, suggesting you could pull at 145-150F for a sliced roast. Yeah, you could and it would…

I recently roasted a 5lb leg of lamb. Temp was pretty obvious but I had never cooked meat this way so an idea on time is really useful. Google search is a disaster for this kind of question. And I guess I have never encountered a good general cook book that I feel comfortable building off of.

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

#443

Post by fhd2 » Thu, May 28, 2026, 10:54 AM UTC

data-ottawa wrote: post #139

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.

The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. All conventions and user centricity go out the window with AI feature launches lately. If you look at examples from the last week it’s stuff like posthogs opt-out training, Copilot training, or Google’s antigravity chat-app switch. I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life…

One fascinating thing about LLMs is the degree of evangelism it inspires in some. You can explain some of that with paid micro influencers, people invested in the success of AI, consultants looking for workshop opportunities and all that, but I know enough people with no skin in the game at all, that turned into very vocal advocates.

I think to some degree, that effect is also at play here. CEOs, product managers etc are simply amazed, and want to spread the good news. I doubt they can even _comprehend_ that others might not be as excited as them.

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

#444

Post by jve » Thu, May 28, 2026, 10:56 AM UTC

andersonpico wrote: post #112

thewebguyd wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

My brother with no programming experience took some AI courses and automated adding products to his ecommerce site from his suppliers. Fetches images, converts them, categorizes, adds descriptions/specs in multiple languages translated via DeepL API, calculates prices.

He also tries to troubleshoot/debug stuff without calling me... and just asking me to choose right path offered by AI. I love it :) Because I usually make people wait and don't have much time outside my business hours to do additional tech stuff.

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

#445

Post by sharperguy » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:04 AM UTC

data-ottawa wrote: post #139

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.

The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. All conventions and user centricity go out the window with AI feature launches lately. If you look at examples from the last week it’s stuff like posthogs opt-out training, Copilot training, or Google’s antigravity chat-app switch. I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life…

I'm someone who makes extensive used of LLMs and agents for daily research, and I 100% of the time ignore the AI summary that google gives at the top of the page. If I am performing a web search, I've already decided that I'm explicitly NOT looking for an LLM summary.

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

#446

Post by tripledry » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:05 AM UTC

fhd2 wrote: post #443

data-ottawa wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. All conventions and user centricity go out the window with AI feature launches lately. If you look at examples from the last week it’s stuff like posthogs opt-out training, Copilot training, or Google’s antigravity chat-app switch. I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life…

One fascinating thing about LLMs is the degree of evangelism it inspires in some. You can explain some of that with paid micro influencers, people invested in the success of AI, consultants looking for workshop opportunities and all that, but I know enough people with no skin in the game at all, that turned into very vocal advocates. I think to some degree, that effect is also at play here. CEOs, product managers etc…

I'm sure there is an effect when people talk on socials (linkedin, company intra etc) that they are marketing themselves. This is why I won't take any claims on socials that seriously.

I'll believe it when I see it.

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

#447

Post by LtWorf » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:09 AM UTC

marcus_holmes wrote: post #383

ghastmaster wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The AI product rollouts in the last two years have been some of the most aggressive and user hostile product rollouts in my entire life. >I’ve had the worst customer experiences of my life in the last few months. I attribute that to the massive amount of tax breaks and money that has been funneled to them by various governments. The government is the customer that they are appeasing right now. As soon as the spigot…

I'm not aware of any government handouts for tech companies adding AI to their products, can you give an example, please?

https://openai.com/it-IT/index/our-agreement-with-the-depart...

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

#448

Post by LtWorf » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:12 AM UTC

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.

I know plenty in real life. Way way way more than online.

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

#449

Post by LtWorf » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:14 AM UTC

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #396

neltnerb wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder how many in that poll have a negative sentiment about AI, yet are also heavy users. There seems to be some kind of disconnect going on? Being a heavy user seems like it'd create a lot of resentment if you don't actually enjoy doing it. If you have used a tool for years and years and suddenly it shoves in a bunch of AI, like Duolingo or Google, are you a heavy user who may well dislike the results? I have t…

ChatGPT has been downloaded >1 billion times on the Android PlayStore. AI is incredibly popular. People have all sorts of concerns about how AI will change society, but that's precisely because it's so useful for so many things. If it were useless or just a fad, there would be no reason to worry.

The startup where I worked had 1 million downloads (which is much less), but how many of those were using it daily vs trying it for 30 minutes and forgetting about it?

Less than 10% in our case :)

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

#450

Post by LtWorf » Thu, May 28, 2026, 11:17 AM UTC

osigurdson wrote: post #28

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.

If it didn't just make stuff up it would be even better!