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DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search
(techcrunch.com)
this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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DDG isn't the holy grail people make it out to be; it has contracts with Microsoft and we all know how Microslop likes AI.
No, they're not, but they are one of the better-known alternatives to Google, and they do advocate privacy. This, in itself, is a good thing and should be promoted.
The problem is that Google's monopoly on web search is so large that using Google is the de facto standard for the vast majority of people. Getting them to acknowledge that there are alternatives to Google benefits privacy on the internet more than DDG having contracts with MS harms it.
Switching from Google to MS/Bing isnt really much of a privacy win.
Switching from a search engine that heavily tracks you to a search engine that doesn't is a privacy win.
Think microslop doesn't track you? Think again.
I'm not sure if I correctly get your point: DDG provides search results based on Bing and has advertisment contracts with MS but DDG in itself doesn't track you:
From DDGs FAQ:
Rule of thumb is to not take their word as gospel. All social media also present themselves as being concerned about your privacy when they are anything but.
Search engine ad set-ups include trackers typically.
Okay, I get it. So do you propose that we simply don't trust any company, or do you especially mistrust DDG? If you specifically mistrust DDG, do you have a good alternative?
If you mistrust companies in general: I get where you're coming from, but I also think it's highly impractical to distrust basically everyone on the Internet because you have to use their services at some point.
I wouldn't use DDG's Android app, though, because it doesn't block Microsoft trackers. Now we can debate whether this means the app doesn't block MS trackers on MS websites or if it allows tracking on its own website (which would contradict the claim I cited above).
My proposition is to avoid making it seem that a provider is trustworthy when it isn't.
Trusting a provider because you have to use one (and not because they are actually trustworthy) doesn't seem appropriate. Either use it while knowing they're not trustworthy, or don't.
There's a lack of good options right now to my knowledge. It seems that startpage may be a viable option, although I've heard it pulls from Google's search results. Though if it doesn't have Google's trackers I would still see that as a better option.
DuckDuckGo literally uses Bing for search results.
Why should I literally care?
What's the alternative? The basically unusable Mojeek? Rawdogging Bing? SearXNG?
Qwant and Ecosia teamed up to make a European indexer/web crawler. They're still using Bing to pad the result quality for now but slowly phasing out reliance on Bing from what I understand.
Still, they also push AI so can use this argument:
https://www.qwant.com/?llm=0
Ecosia have to use cookies unfortunately to disable AI overview:
https://www.ecosia.org/settings