Google’s AI keynote at Google I/O is over, but Gemini has a long way to go before it can turn Google’s AI dreams into reality. While many of Google’s AI features will take a few months to arrive, the release AI review function is now available to all US users.
In the future, Google will add more AI features to the search page. This includes the ability to ask longer, more sophisticated questions and even organize your entire search page into different sections using artificial intelligence. If this seems like too much, you can do something about it.
Turn off artificial intelligence in Google Search
While rolling out all the modern AI features, Google has also introduced something to aid you come back –way back. There is now a modern, easy-to-miss button at the top of the search results page called “Network” If you switch to this, Google will only show text links from websites, just like the good antique days (although these may include sponsored ads).
The irony of having to press a button called Internet to get Internet search results is not lost on me. Nevertheless, it will be a useful feature for anyone who prefers the old-school approach to Google search, one that showed only the best results from the web, consisting of trusted sites.
Web Filter will be rolled out globally to search engines on desktop and mobile devices today and tomorrow. You should see it in your search results soon. If you don’t find it in the toolbar, click More menu and it should be there.
Source: Google Search Liaison (via X)
When you switch to a web filter, any type of media or pop-up boxes will also be removed from your search results. You won’t see the images, videos or articles sections in Google News. Instead, you will simply see links (which themselves may point to YouTube videos or news) as per Google search connector entry on site X.
Google also confirmed this to The Verge that the web filter will remain so even as Google continues to add more AI features to the Google Search home page.
Artificial intelligence cannot be stopped
While the web filter is a nice addition, it’s not the default option and you have to switch it manually each time (like switching to the Images or Maps filter). This move also made something else clear: Google doesn’t offer an option to disable AI search on the default search page. We may eventually see Chrome extensions that can change the Google Search page, but for now the only escape from Google Search AI is to switch to a web filter.
