You Should Know @lemmy.world SanguinePar @lemmy.world 2 mo. ago

YSK: It's possible to get search results from Google without the annoying 'AI' answers at the top

Already getting sick of seeing 'AI' results at the top of a search when all you want is a link to a site?

I just discovered this article showing a way to not see it (although it doesn't disable it altogether).

TLDR:

In Chrome open settings menu, choose Search engine on left menu and scroll down to site search
Click Add button and choose a name (eg Old Google, Google Web or whatever)
Add a shortcut word (eg web, og, or whatever)
Add this URL string: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14
Save that, and now if you search for something and use the shortcut word you set you'll just get proper results, no 'AI' shown
Or, if you don't want to have to add a shortcut word, you just make that search your default (use the 3 dot menu next to the name you set) and all searches will show that way, no shortcut word needed.

EDIT - meant to add that there are detailed instructions for Edge, Firefox and Safari in the article if you don't use Chrome

Hope that helps someone - I really don't like all that extra nonsense when I just want a link to a site that I know exists!

[Obligatory - "or don't use Chrome/Google...", I know - but people do, so this might be useful]

43 comments

As you said there are people who don't want to switch from Chrome and Google, but at this point if you're talking about a ten step fix-it plan, is really does make more sense to just use Firefox and DDG. Or searx, I'm pretty sure that's still fewer steps.
- Yeah. I went to duck duck go a while ago.
  
  Their default maps is terrible, but web search works fine.
  
  For some reason the only videos they link on the video tab is YouTube tho, which sucks and you're better off just searching YouTube instead at that point.
- DDG
  
  "Hey wanna use our AI chat?!"
  "Hey, like these autogenerated result-blobs instead of your actual results?"
  "Hey, we thought you hate finding the place you were looking for, so we use Apple Maps to ensure you're getting fucking nowhere, ever!"
  
  I wish DDG was usable. All it is, is a good showcase that Google isn't as bad as they could be.
  
  Pfttt… at least with DDG you can turn any of that stuff off with a button in a UI rather than having to make a new bookmark or fuck around with your browsers search engine.
  
  You can even turn the ads off if you want.
  
  Also, Apple Maps is totally fine, it’s not overloaded with ads like Google Maps is and it basically always finds the place I search for.
  
  DDG AI chat is actually pretty decent, offers multiple options for free with no noticable limit; maps is dogshit agreed, still have to fall back to google, use uBlock and can remove the featured results on DDG.
  
  I’ve never noticed anything of what you describe. Perhaps they get filtered by uBlock. And isn’t the default Bing Maps for DDG?
  
  Kagi is better than all of them besides your own SearXNG setup. I’ve always thought DDG was bad, but man Kagi is like going back to the good ole days of Google in the 2000s.
- is really does make more sense to just use Firefox and DDG
  
  I take the point - but it doesn't make sense if you still prefer Chrome/Google to those overall and just want to change one aspect of it. This is just a way to improve the experience for people who are mostly happy with what they use and not interested in changing from it. It's great that we as users have that choice, that's how it should be.
  
  but youre asking for something thats effectively cosmetic filtering, a feature that google pushing Manifeat V3, for example removed ublock for having as a user feature. while its good to have a choice, you need to understand when you're effectively fighting against yourself by asking for a feature that was intentionally removed, and you could get back, had you werent deadset with siding with the company that killed the feature.
First mistake is using Chrome second mistake is using Google.
- Maybe I should have put that last line up the top instead...
  
  No, this is Lemmy. It’s Linux, Firefox, DDG and pirate all intellectual property. Period. No exceptions.
This is like those 20 minute videos for a problem that can be fixed in 20 sec

At the end of the day, if you keep using google, you will keep getting manipulated into what google wants you to. It may be fair, as it is free. Its a choice really. I pay a small amount to Kagi and have clean results with optional Ai if i feel like using it.
- This is like those 20 minute videos for a problem that can be fixed in 20 sec
  
  Hence my TLDR. It's a 6-point bullet list (and the last one is optional).
  
  I know.
  
  Its an overcomplicated solution for a problem that doesnt really fix anything in the long run.
  
  I'm pretty sure they meant "20 minutes" to mean a lifetime of always fighting google and "20 seconds" to mean switching to a different browser
If you don't like the "extra nonsense", how about you stop using Google products? Namely Chrome and Google?
- Feel like I covered that at the bottom.
Well, replace that with Firefox and use this Addon:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/
- Why would you need an extension for that? You can add other search engines right in the settings of firefox.
  
  Edit: I was wrong, this is a feature Librewolf adds in their builds.
  
  No you cant. Engines either need to support the "OpenSearch" standard, which is useless because it only works for a few and only for default configuration.
  
  Or they need to have an Extension themselves, which is a silly concept.
  
  Instead, this addon uses a URL (as it is supported in Firefox Mobile, Chrome, Brave, Edge, ...) and converts it to an OpenSearch Search engine which you can then add.
  
  Afterwards you can remove the Addon.
Use DDG
You can also use startpage which just proxies your search queries and doesn’t return the AI answers.
I actually like the ai answer box
- That's fair enough - as long as users have options then all good as far as I'm concerned :-)
Why don't you like the AI answer box (other than it being wrong sometimes)?
- Partly it's aesthetic - it takes up so much room!
  
  Partly it's preferential - I'm not keen on machine generated answers being prioritised over actual sources.
  
  Mainly though it's because when I do a search, I usually know what website I expect/want to get to, and just want that available to click immediately.

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