How DuckDuckGo's 'Search Assist' Feature Mimics Google's AI Overviews, But Without Making AI The Star

In the unfolding saga of AI-powered search, Google remains dominant. Untouched. Undisturbed. Unforgiving.

And its dominance continues, even when Google launched AI Overviews, which stand as a hallmark of the generative AI era.

Born from the Search Generative Experience (SGE) introduced at Google I/O in May 2023, following OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews auto-generate summaries of search results using advanced AI, aiming to be the new face of search.

This feature was rebranded and rolled out more broadly in 2024, hitting over 100 countries globally by October.

Despite the mixed reception, especially from website owners and publishers that began to see massive decline in organic traffic, Google is still undisputedly the gatekeeper that controls their fate.

Amid this AI arms race, DuckDuckGo found itself uniquely positioned. Launched in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg as a privacy-first rival to Google, DuckDuckGo promised a search experience without tracking. This is a radical divergence from the growing surveillance-based models dominating tech.

Over the years, its growth mirrored rising privacy awareness, from Edward Snowden to Cambridge Analytica, carving out a loyal user base despite Google's overwhelming dominance.

CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a blog post:

Search Assist is DuckDuckGo's answer to Google's AI Overviews.

Initially called DuckAssist, it's a core feature inside DuckDuckGo's search engine, but with key differences, all of which aren't putting AI front-and-center.

Weinberg highlighted that:

1. Users can turn Search Assist off or turn on.
2. When it's on, Search Assist keeps vertical space to a minimum so users can still easily get to other search results.
3. Initial Search Assist summary is intentionally short in order to keeps hallucinations to a minimum. Users who wish to see more can still see a fuller explanation.
4. Users can use the Assist button to either generate an answer on demand if one isn’t showing automatically, or collapse an answer that is showing to zero vertical space.
5. Whenever DuckDuckGo thinks that Search Assist cannot provide better results, it will be shown either down in the middle, at the bottom, or not at all.
6. Search Assist will have source links visible, always. What this means, they're not hidden behind any clicks or separated from the answer.
7. The thumbs up/down is also visible by default, not hidden behind a click. This anonymous feedback is valuable to help DuckDuckGo find ways to improve.
8. To generate Search Assist's answers, DuckDuckGo uses a separate crawling bot called DuckAssistBot, not the the normal DuckDuckBot that feeds its search engine.
9. Like all of DuckDuckGo's search results, Search Assist is anonymous.

In the grand scale of the global arena of search engines, Google remains the unrivaled leader. The tech titan commands an astonishing 90% of global search traffic, give or take depending on the source.

DuckDuckGo only gets a miniscule 0.5% to 0.8%, which is nothing significant.

Up until late 2022, DuckDuckGo regularly published daily and monthly search volumes, and even had interactive graphs showing growth over time.

But by the end of 2022, the company removed their traffic stats page entirely, clearly suggesting how it wishes to not let the public know about its gains and loses, outside of saying that it conducts 3 billion monthly searches, 9 million monthly downloads, a 2.8 average rating, and a global team of 335+ people.

Regardless, DuckDuckGo plays its subtle part: when the spotlight shifts away from Google, DuckDuckGo controls around 9% of the remaining market in some niches, This, is an intriguing slice for a privacy-centric engine.

DuckDuckGo is not a rival of Google in one way or another.

But when it comes to those who care about privacy, and those who wish to take a step back from Google’s all-seeing eye, DuckDuckGo, with its search engine and browser, doesn't promise to outmatch Google in reach, speed, or ecosystem.

Instead, it offers something far rarer in today’s internet: anonymity, control, and trust.