DuckDuckGo courts schools as Google ties Search access to AI features

On November 4, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg offered school administrators instructions and help to make DuckDuckGo the default search engine on managed Chrome browsers and Chromebooks. The move followed Google’s decision to turn off Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search by default for K–12 accounts, while requiring schools that enable Google Search to accept AI Overviews and AI Mode because no AI-free version is offered. DuckDuckGo’s Kamyl Bazbaz criticized that bundling as forcing AI on students. DuckDuckGo reported a 76% rise in U.S. installs after the policy change, but it remains far behind Google, with 0.64% of worldwide search traffic in October versus Google’s 91.05%, and downloads do not show that schools have switched.