Anthropic · OpenAI · Google · Meta · Decrypt
Brave launched Brave Origin in April, a $59.99 one-time purchase that strips its browser down to the basics: ad blocking
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 2 sources. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◎ Multiple-sources
People seem to be happy to pay for a version of the browser that has had things taken out of it.
Key facts
- Brave launched Brave Origin in April, a $59.99 one-time purchase that strips its browser down to the basics: ad blocking, Brave Shields, and nothing else
- Brave CTO Brian Bondy acknowledged the obvious tension: The company generates revenue from Leo AI, Brave Wallet, Brave Talk, its VPN, and crypto partnerships
- DuckDuckGo app installs in the U.S. jumped 18.1% week-over-week on average between May 20 and May 25, with iOS installs peaking at 69.9% on a single day, per TechCrunch
- Traffic to noai.duckduckgo.com tripled on May 28 —a new record—and has been averaging 84% above its normal baseline ever
Summary
Visits to noai.duckduckgo.com—DuckDuckGo's AI-free search subdomain—tripled after Google announced its AI search overhaul at the reporter/O, and have been sitting 84% above baseline ever since. As a result, DuckDuckGo launched No-AI Search extensions for Chrome and Firefox on June 1, letting users set the AI-free page as their permanent default with one click. U.S. app installs jumped hit record numbers. DuckDuckGo spent the better part of 2024 building Duck.ai, an anonymous chatbot that lets you chat privately with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. The extension, called DuckDuckGo No-AI Search, sets your default search engine to noai.duckduckgo.com—DuckDuckGo's AI-free subdomain.