Lily Ray on the Growing Backlash Against Google’s AI Search

Lily Ray, VP of SEO and AI Search at Amsive, posted something worth reading on LinkedIn on May 27, 2026. She was not writing about a new tool or a ranking update. She was writing about a pattern she keeps seeing play out in public: people are visibly unhappy with how Google search is changing, and Google keeps saying users love the new AI features.

That gap is the whole point of her post.

What Triggered the Post

Ray says her social feeds, not just her SEO circles, have been full of people asking about Google alternatives since Google I/O. It reminded her of when AI Overviews first launched and a wave of users immediately searched for how to turn them off.

Her read is nuanced. She acknowledges that unhappy users are louder online, while people who are fine with the changes just get on with their day. But she still finds it worth flagging that the public mood and Google’s official messaging are pointing in very different directions.

What the Research Actually Shows

Ray references a post by SEO consultant Carl Hendy, who looked at where Google’s claims that users prefer AI Search actually come from.

Here is what he found:

Claim	Source
Users prefer AI Search	Google’s internal data
AI Mode usage is growing	Google’s own numbers
Users are happier with results	Google’s messaging
Independent study confirms it	Does not exist

His conclusion: every data point traces back to Google itself. No third-party research has verified any of it.

DuckDuckGo Installs Are Up 30%

The same day Ray posted, TechCrunch reported that DuckDuckGo installs had risen 30% as people looked for Google alternatives.

Ray pointed out that this kind of surge did not happen when AI Overviews first launched in 2024. Kamyl Bazbaz, who handles communications and public affairs at DuckDuckGo, replied that he thinks this time is different for two reasons:

1. Public sentiment about AI has genuinely shifted since 2024
2. Google’s recent AI changes are more significant than what came before

That is the first time, according to Bazbaz, that negative sentiment about Google AI has translated into measurable install growth, rather than just mentions and complaints.

The Bigger Picture

Ray frames this as early signs of an anti-AI countermovement building in the general public. She is careful not to overstate it. She does not predict that millions of people will abandon Google tomorrow.

But she thinks the combination of job displacement concerns, environmental impact, and a search experience that many users find less useful is creating real pressure that was not there before.

The tension she is describing is not really about search. It is about a large technology company telling users that they love something, repeatedly, while a growing number of those users visibly disagree.

What This Means for Website Owners

For anyone running a website that depends on search traffic, the question worth sitting with is this: if user trust in AI-driven search results is genuinely eroding, how does that affect how your content gets found and evaluated?

The answer is not to panic about traffic. It is to make sure your content earns trust on its own terms: clear writing, accurate information, real expertise, and a site that works well when someone lands on it from any source.

AI systems and traditional search engines both reward content that directly answers questions and demonstrates genuine knowledge. That stays true regardless of which search tool someone is using.

the practical takeaway is straightforward: build content worth citing, whether the citation comes from a human reader, a Google snippet, or an AI system summarizing sources.

See Lily Ray’s full LinkedIn post and live workflow example here.

Key Takeaways

• Lily Ray flagged a visible gap between how Google describes user sentiment around AI Search and what users are actually saying publicly
• Carl Hendy’s research found that every claim about users preferring AI Search traces back to Google’s own internal data, with no independent verification
• DuckDuckGo installs rose 30% following Google I/O, a surge that did not happen when AI Overviews first launched in 2024
• Kamyl Bazbaz at DuckDuckGo says this is the first time negative sentiment has translated into measurable install growth
• Ray sees this as early signs of a broader anti-AI countermovement, driven by concerns about jobs, the environment, and a degraded search experience

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