Google AI Overviews don’t save me time. For one thing, I am a tech blogger and therefore curious to see if the generated answers are accurate. I spend a few clicks checking. (Answer: Sometimes, But not always!
Things get existential when I consider how long a system that feeds on itself can survive — if AI provides answers based on websites that survive because readers visit them, what happens if no one visits these sites because AI stole the answer? Will I still be able to write for websites when they die due to lack of traffic? There’s a lot of things to consider when I just want the latest TSA lithium-ion batteries regulations.
It’s odd (and unhelpful) that the first result you get when you Google the question “How to turn AI Overviews off in Chrome” does not actually answer the query. The Google Support’s entrydiscusses how to turn off the feature back when AI Overviews was an experimental feature and handled by Google Labs. You can continue to the bottom of that page, where you will see:
: Turning off AI Overviews and More” in Search Labs does not disable all AI overviews in Search. AI Overviews, like other features such as knowledge panels in Google Search, cannot be turned off.
I am fortunate to work with intelligent people. One of them provided me with a simple way to ensure that each search performed in Chrome browser uses only results from the Web tab. Here’s how to avoid wasting time (and You can now search as if it were 2024.
How to turn off AI Overviews in Chrome on desktop
-
Click the three dots in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser
-
Go to Settings> Search engine> Manage search engines and search
-
Under Site searchclick the Add button
-
Enter Name: Google/Web
-
Enter Shortcut: https://www.google.com/
-
Enter URL: google:baseURLsearch?udm=14&q=%s
-
Click Add
Then, ( Click the three dots next the shortcut you created and click Set as default.
Go to Google and search for “the best laptop battery banks”. Click on Engadget (usually one or four results down). Spend a few minutes looking at the ads and the picture of my office before you move on.
Other methods to turn off AI Overviews on Google Chrome
Avram Piltch, in the same Tom’s Hardwarearticle, links to an extensionhe created, which is a very easy way to hide AI Overviews. You’ll still get the response but you won’t be able to see it. The extension is faster and keeps you on your familiar “All” tab of search results with knowledge panels, videos and other results.
If you want to turn off AI Overview for Chrome for your phone, please contact tenbluelinks. Open the link on your phone and follow the instructions for Android or iOS.
