How to Turn Off Google AI Overviews in Search

Have you noticed something different when you search for things online lately? You type a question. Instead of a list of websites, a giant box of AI text pops up at the top. Google calls this feature AI Overviews. While it tries to be helpful, many people find it slow, annoying, and sometimes completely wrong. If you want to get your normal search results back, you are not alone. This quick guide shows you how to turn off Google AI overviews. You can get back to the classic web search you trust.

Why People Want to Turn Off AI Search Results

When Google first rolled out these AI answers, it seemed like a neat idea. But soon, users started seeing weird mistakes. The AI told people to put glue on pizza sauce to keep the cheese from sliding off. In other searches, it suggested eating at least one small rock a day for vitamins. These are funny errors, but they can also be dangerous if someone asks for medical advice.

Beyond these funny errors, the main issue is speed and screen space. The AI box takes a few seconds to load. While you wait, the screen jumps around. This pushes down the actual links you want to click. You have to scroll past text you didn't ask for.

Many of us just want to find a specific website. We don't need an AI summarizing pages. Often we just want the login page or a quick recipe. If you like staying up to date with technology news, you know how fast these search features change. Sometimes the old way of doing things is simply better and faster.

The Easy Way to Get Web-Only Search Results

Google does not offer a simple "off" switch for AI Overviews in your settings page. They want you to use it because they spent a lot of money building it. But there is a very easy trick that gets rid of it instantly without installing anything.

When you search for something on Google, look at the menu bar just under the search box. You will see tabs like "Images", "Videos", and "News". If you look closely, you will see an option called "Web". Sometimes you have to click the "More" button to find it.

Clicking "Web" does three great things for your search:

• It removes the AI Overview box completely.
• It hides shopping ads and huge sponsored blocks.
• It shows you only classic, blue links to real websites.

This is the cleanest way to search today. The only downside is that you have to click "Web" every time you do a new search. On mobile phones, this can be even more annoying because the menu bar is small and hard to tap quickly. Luckily, there is a permanent fix.

How to Make the Web Tab Your Default Search

If you don't want to click the "Web" tab every time, you can change your browser settings. This works best on desktop browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Brave. It takes about two minutes to set up, and you only have to do it once.

First, open your browser settings and look for the search engine section. You will want to add a new "custom search engine" to your list. Click the button to add a new search engine.

Next, fill out the fields. Set the name to something simple, like "Google Web". Set the shortcut word to something short, like "web". Then, paste this exact code into the URL field:

{google: baseURL}search? q=%s& udm=14

The secret magic here is the "udm=14" part at the end. That code tells Google to load the web only version of your search results automatically. Once you save this, click the three dots next to "Google Web" and set it as your default search engine. Now, every time you type a search into your address bar, you will get clean results without any AI boxes.

Keeping Up With Constant Tech Changes

Tech companies are pushing AI into every app we use, whether we want it or not. It can feel overwhelming to keep track of all these updates. Just like tracking how rising interest rates affect your mortgage, keeping up with tech changes takes some effort. We have to learn new tricks just to keep our favorite tools working the way we want them to.

There are also browser extensions you can install that block the AI box automatically. Extensions like "Bye Bye Google AI" do the work for you with one click. But using the browser settings trick we talked about is much safer. You do not have to trust a third party developer with your search data. It also will not slow down your computer.

Will Google Ever Give Us an Off Switch?

It is unlikely that Google will add a simple toggle button to disable AI Overviews. They have invested billions of dollars into this technology to compete with other AI tools. They want search to feel like a conversation with an assistant. But as more users complain, they might make the feature smaller or less intrusive over time.

Until then, we have to take control of our own screens. Try the browser trick today and see how much faster your searches feel. It is nice to have the old internet back, even if it requires a little bit of setup. If you get tired of Google completely, you can try DuckDuckGo. They do not force AI on you unless you ask.