AI has undoubtedly shifted the search engine market, but Google, being Google, seems to be able to stabilize the shift in its favor, with Google still controlling 90% of the search market share.
However, I don't believe the real shift will be caused by the prevalence of AI, but rather by the distaste for AI. With Google seeking to stay dominant in the techverse, it must push AI to its users as hard as other companies such as Meta, Apple, and Microsoft are.
One problem: a growing dislike of AI is starting to build within these users, from AI art to AI data centers; the people are getting tired.
This tiredness is starting to result in action among users, with DuckDuckGo, a search engine alternative to Google, seeing 30% and 18% increases in page visits and app installs after the release of its No AI private search, which can be found at: noai.duckduckgo.com.
DuckDuckGo's No AI search brings back a familiar feel, which is almost nostalgic, by showing a wall of 9-10 blue links for the user to click on without summarized answers gathered from 10 different sites. Also, DuckDuckGo's No AI search removes AI-generated images and suggestions, and as a cherry on top, it's private.
This push from DuckDuckGo to release a No AI search feature shows it's in touch with users, publishers, and others, rather than with Google, whose focus seems to be on treating sites as farms to harvest answers to feed its AI to users who no longer want to eat. Additionally, since Google has almost been uncaring or even hostile towards publishers with broken search updates and a seeming goal to replace Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) with its AI, a shift may also be seen among publishers and businesses.
Google Wasn't Built in a Day, nor Will It Fall in a Day
This increase in usage of DuckDuckGo's No-AI search isn't a final blow to Google, not even close, but it's a sign that the walls are slowly but surely crumbling.
Imagine if DuckDuckGo, in the next few years, were to add a business profile, such as Google My Business (GMB), then went on to add data analytics and site control for SEO, such as Google Search Console or Google Analytics, then improved their search results, do you see were I'm going, the features of Google and DuckDuckGo will slowly merge, but with one difference, one company seems to listen to it's users.
Additionally, DuckDuckGo's execution of the AI wave is being done perfectly while still having an AI chatbot named Duck.ai and summarized answers in search; they avoid forcing AI in the faces of users while also offering users a No AI search option. And that last word, "option," is crucial, as that's what users truly want: "options," and options are what big tech companies such as Google happen to forget.
