If you do use Google Search as your daily search driver or occasionally, you may have noticed an increase in AI summaries at the top of the search results.
Run a search for “what is Windows 11” and there is a good chance that Google displays an AI generated answer to the query at the very top. While that is useful at times, especially if you just need a quick overview of a topic or want something that would require significant manual research, it may at other times be of no use or even relaying incorrect information.
While you could switch to another search engine or install an extension that removes the AI content, you could also use the following to handle this on a case-by-case basis.
All you have to do is append &udm=14 to the URL. Just paste the string at the end of the URL and hit reload. This takes care of the AI overview.
Tip: you may also add a custom search engine to your browser of choice. This is the URL that you need to add: https://google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s
If you want something permanent, the best option is to install a browser extension for that.
Here is a short list of extensions you may consider:
Chromium-based, e.g. Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, or Opera:
- Hide Google AI Overviews – 4.7 rating, over 100,000 users
- Disable AI Overview | Turn Off AI Overview – 4.4 rating, over 10,000 users
Mozilla Firefox:
- Hide Google AI Overviews – 4.1 rating, over 25,000 users
Now You: What is your take on AI overviews or summaries in search? Do you find them useful, sometimes useful or not useful at all? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Rather than installing a browser extension to address this issue, I’d suggest using a search engine that doesn’t do this in the first place.
But search engines in general are becoming less useful. It’s now normal to get pages of clickbait and AI-generated SEO spam sites in response to querys. This is what the web has become… AI-“enhanced” search engines trying to find info in a maze of AI-generated crapsites.
I agree with you. At the firzt appearance of an Ai generated response I dropped using google and switched to a search engine that do not have AI responses in the search results
I find AI useful; even DDG uses “Assist” for generating short answers which can, in theory, save me loads of time when only needing a short answer–e.g.
“You can hide Google AI search results by adding “-AI” at the end of your search query or by selecting the “Web” filter option under the search bar. Additionally, you can use browser extensions designed to block AI Overviews from appearing in your search results.”
If the above works as intended, it makes eliminating Google AI results easier than adding whatever string is mentioned in Martin’s article.
Raindrop for bookmarks–if I want to search bookmarks–rd search query.
Do users try AI? One can generate a beautiful PS script on ChatGPT to “de-bloat and optimize Windows 11.” No need to go to GitHub and use some other “wanker’s” result from an AI generator.
The stench of AI: I thought about how long I’ve been reading Martin’s blog, at least a decade. And I follow his entries on BetaNews. There is one other site I follow as consistently–never miss a day. And I realized the ultimate: “There is a “real” person behind these articles and thoughtful passages that I read each day. But for how long? Is the material now being generated by AI, and I am reading artificial entries?”
Recently, I relied on ChatGPT to compose a response to an email that I found impossible to answer because of the “belief system” the sender had. I knew whatever I would say about the films or the articles, the tone would sound inflammatory and would alienate the sender from continuing the discussion. It worked quite well.
The positive usage of AI is endless. How “positive” is defined is highly subjective.