Alternative search engine DuckDuckGo's worldwide market share has steadily increased from July 2019 to January 2025 – the largest surge being in the United States, which surpassed the search engine’s growth in all other regions. Here, an increased uptake began roughly around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, continuing in the months leading up to the US elections and beyond, but later running a bit lower than three percent in since January 2023. Ecosia - the more popular alternative in Europe While Google is still the market leader by a long shot when it comes to search engines in the United States - where DuckDuckGo is also based, consumer trust in big tech has been waning and more are seeking out privacy-based alternatives. In Europe, Ecosia is the more popular option and has seen steady growth particularly in Germany and France. Despite not having privacy as its main selling point, the German-based company invests its profits into tree-planting and reforestation projects. Americans’ waning trust in the government The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic caught most governments off-guard, invoking a host of different responses and approaches across the globe. In the United States, overall trust in the government to deal appropriately with the pandemic fell by approximately 20 percent in the period between February 2020 and January 2021. In fact, among the various institutions of authority, Americans had the least trust in the government – even less than that towards the European Union. Conversely, the United Nations commanded the most public trust. As the COVID vaccination rollout continues across the country, young Americans aged 18 to 24 are also the most skeptical when it comes to the idea of vaccination passports for travel, with approximately 41 percent in support of the measure.

As of March 2025, Google represented 79.1 percent of the global online search engine market on desktop devices. Despite being much ahead of its competitors, this represents the lowest share ever recorded by the search engine in these devices for over two decades. Meanwhile, its long-time competitor Bing accounted for 12.21 percent, as tools like Yahoo and Yandex held shares of over 2.9 percent each. Google and the global search market Ever since the introduction of Google Search in 1997, the company has dominated the search engine market, while the shares of all other tools has been rather lopsided. The majority of Google revenues are generated through advertising. Its parent corporation, Alphabet, was one of the biggest internet companies worldwide as of 2024, with a market capitalization of 2.02 trillion U.S. dollars. The company has also expanded its services to mail, productivity tools, enterprise products, mobile devices, and other ventures. As a result, Google earned one of the highest tech company revenues in 2024 with roughly 348.16 billion U.S. dollars. Search engine usage in different countries Google is the most frequently used search engine worldwide. But in some countries, its alternatives are leading or competing with it to some extent. As of the last quarter of 2023, more than 63 percent of internet users in Russia used Yandex, whereas Google users represented little over 33 percent. Meanwhile, Baidu was the most used search engine in China, despite a strong decrease in the percentage of internet users in the country accessing it. In other countries, like Japan and Mexico, people tend to use Yahoo along with Google. By the end of 2024, nearly half of the respondents in Japan said that they had used Yahoo in the past four weeks. In the same year, over 21 percent of users in Mexico said they used Yahoo.