Linux Works and Many of Us Are Happy With What Works
I started using Ubuntu close to ten years ago and loved it. It worked, it was simple to install. And it didn't have the DRM management headaches with peripherals that MS Vista tried to impose. Then Canonical decided that Ubuntu was no longer "shiny" and they had to go to the Unity GUI to make my desktop monitor look like a fondleslab. I spent two weeks searching for a way to get around Unity and go back to something that worked and with which I was accustomed. And I found Linux Mint 14. I'm up to Mint 17 Cinnamon now on two desktops and a laptop and haven't booted into Windows in so long I'm not even sure I still have that option. Since Mint 17 is an LTS version, I don't expect to upgrade further for quite a few years. When friends ask about Linux, I either burn them a Linux Mint distro DVD or I point them to a linuxmint.com repository so there's no need for them to go searching.
As others have pointed out DDG respects my privacy while Google sells my search information -- haven't used Google for anything in at least two years. In short, a judgement based upon the number of Google searches for new Linux distros is going to be doomed to grossly underestimate the number of people migrating to Linux.