{"id":11467,"date":"2025-06-14T21:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T21:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/how-to-turn-off-googles-ai-overviews-in-web-searches\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T21:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T21:01:35","slug":"how-to-turn-off-googles-ai-overviews-in-web-searches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/how-to-turn-off-googles-ai-overviews-in-web-searches\/","title":{"rendered":"How to turn off Google\u2019s AI Overviews in web searches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Amy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Google\u2019s AI Overviews do not save me time. For one, I work for a tech blog and am therefore professionally curious as to whether or not the generated answers are correct, so I spend a few ticks figuring that out. (Answer: Sometimes, but not always!)<\/p>\n

Then things get existential as I contemplate how long a self-cannibalizing system can sustain itself \u2014 if the AI gives answers pulled from websites that survive on visits from readers, what happens when no one visits those sites because AI cribbed the answer? Will I still get to write for websites if websites die from traffic starvation? It\u2019s a lot to think about when all I want is TSA\u2019s latest lithium-ion battery regulations.<\/p>\n

Curiously (and unhelpfully) the first result when you Google \u201cHow to turn off AI Overviews in Chrome\u201d doesn\u2019t actually answer the question. The entry, from Google Support, discusses turning the feature off back when AI Overviews were experimental and handled through Google Labs. Navigate a little further down that page and you\u2019ll see:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Note<\/strong>: Turning off \u201cAI Overviews and more\u201d in Search Labs will not disable all AI Overviews in Search. AI Overviews are part of Google Search like other features, such as knowledge panels, and can\u2019t be turned off.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Thankfully, I work with intelligent people and one of them supplied me with a simple method of ensuring each search performed in a Chrome browser bypasses the AI Overview and uses results from the Web tab only. Here\u2019s how you too can avoid wasted time (and energy) so you can search like it’s 2024.<\/p>\n

How to turn off AI Overviews in Chrome on desktop<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. \n

    Click the three dots in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Go to Settings<\/strong> > Search engin<\/strong>e > Manage search engines and search<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Under Site search<\/strong>, click the Add<\/strong> button<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Enter Name<\/strong>: Google\/Web<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Enter Shortcut<\/strong>: https:\/\/www.google.com\/<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    Enter URL<\/strong>: {google:baseURL}search?udm=14&q=%s<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  7. \n

    Click Add<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \n
    \n

    \"Dialog<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Google \/ Engadget<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

    Then, (hat tip to Tom\u2019s Hardware<\/em> for helping me figure this bit out) set the search type to default by clicking the three dots next to the shortcut you just created and clicking Make default<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Now, go Google \u201cthe best laptop power banks\u201d and click on the Engadget entry (usually one to four results down) and spend a few moments looking at the ads (and the picture of my desk) before you move on so I can still have a job in 2026.<\/p>\n

    Other methods for turning off AI Overviews in Google Chrome<\/h2>\n

    In that same Tom\u2019s Hardware article, Avram Piltch links to the extension he built, which is a super easy way to hide the AI Overviews from sight. It\u2019ll still generate the response, you just won\u2019t see it. I prefer the Web method above, to avoid any unnecessary machine processing on my behalf, but the extension is easier and keeps you on the familiar \u201cAll\u201d search results tab with knowledge panels, video results and the like.<\/p>\n

    To turn off the AI Overview for Chrome on your phone, I\u2019ll direct you to the fine folks at tenbluelinks. Just open the link in your phone\u2019s browser and follow the steps for Android or iOS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Google\u2019s AI Overviews do not save me time. For one, I work for a tech blog and am therefore professionally<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7282,"featured_media":11468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}