How to Turn Off Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search?

Google’s AI overview, also known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), has been frustrating users since its launch due to the inaccuracy of the answers to users’ queries. In a recent instance, a user searched for a solution to get rid of kidney stones, but surprisingly, Google AI advised him to drink a couple of gallons of his own urine.

This isn’t the only case; in another instance, a user claimed that Google AI advised him to use glue in response to a query about cheese not sticking to pizza.

If you have enabled Google’s AI overviews, unfortunately, you cannot disable it directly, even if you don’t like it. However, there are some indirect ways to turn off AI overviews and go straight to the search results. This article will discuss ways to avoid Google’s AI overviews.

So if it Cannot Be Disabled, How to Avoid it or Hide it?

To avoid Google’s AI overview, you can either send your search query directly to the web search or use an extension to remove Google’s AI overviews.

Using the extension will remove the HTML by making changes in the CSS, such as finding the Google AI overview block and changing its display to none, which will make the Google AI overviews disappear from the Google search result page. This method will work as long as Google does not change any code on the search results page.

However, since Google’s search results page changes periodically, any small change by Google will break the functionality of the extensions, stopping them from working. If the developers stay up-to-date with these changes, it will be easier to avoid Google’s AI overviews without making any changes to the browser. Additionally, we have provided long-term reliable methods, so you don’t need to worry if the extension method stops working.

1. Use Extension to Block AI Overviews

The automatic way to remove AI overviews is to use an extension that adds CSS code to the HTML block of the AI overview using JavaScript to make it disappear. Many online extensions allow users to disable AI overviews. You can use any of these extensions. We recommend you use Hide Google AI Overview or Bye Bye, Google AI to remove AI overviews.

1. Click the three dots at the top right and hover over Extensions.
2. Click Chrome Web Store and search for Bye Bye, Google AI. Now, add it to your browser.
3. Once done, you should not see any Google AI overviews when searching on Google.
4. Additionally, if you hit W + Spacebar after enabling the Bye Bye, Google AI extension and then enter your query, it will send it straight to the web tab, which does not include AI overviews.

2. Search from Chrome’s Address Bar

If the extension is not working, you can use a reliable long-term method by searching the query from the web address bar. If you search most of your queries from the web address bar, you will need to make a simple change to avoid AI overviews. This change will direct you straight to the web tab on Google, which does not include AI overviews.

1. Click the Three Dots at the top and select Settings.
2. Go to Search Engine from the left sidebar. Here, click Manage Search Engines and Site Search.
3. Under Site Search, click Add.
4. Fill out the following data in the fields described below.

   Name: Google Web
   
   Shortcut: Google.com
   
   String URL: {google:baseURL}/search?udm=14&q=%s

   

5. Once done, click Add. Then, click the three dots associated with the site search that you just created, then select Make it default.
6. Once done, search for anything in the web address bar to see if the Google AI overviews pop up.

How to Turn Off Google’s AI Overviews on Android/iOS?

You cannot add extensions to a mobile device like you can with Google Chrome or any other browser on a PC. You cannot even add a custom search engine to popular browsers like Google Chrome for Android or Safari for iOS. However, the Firefox browser on Android and iOS allows us to add a custom search engine that we can use to send our queries straight to the web tab.

1. Install Firefox from the PlayStore or AppStore.
2. Click the three dots and select Settings.
3. Tap Search under General Settings, then tap Default Search Engine.
4. Tap Add Search Engine here, and fill out the data in the fields mentioned below.

   Name: Google Web
   
   String URL: google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s

   

5. Once done, click Save and then select the search engine that you just created.
6. Now, when you search on the web address bar, it will send you directly to the Google web address.