DuckDuckGo installs jumped 18% after Google killed the blue links. On Apple devices, the spike hit 70%.

DuckDuckGo saw an 18% week-over-week surge in US app installs following Google's I/O 2026 announcement to replace traditional blue-link search results with AI-powered answers. On Apple devices, the single-day peak hit nearly 70%. Traffic to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page (noai.duckduckgo.com) rose 23% on average. CEO Gabriel Weinberg attributed the growth to user frustration with Google's mandatory AI integration and the undisclosed installation of a 4 GB Gemini Nano model via Chrome. DuckDuckGo positions itself not as anti-AI but as pro-choice, offering AI optionally via duck.ai while preserving traditional search. Despite the spike, DuckDuckGo holds only ~3% of the US search market, so the numbers don't threaten Google's dominance — but the signal is notable.