Somewhere between a question typed into a search box and the answer that arrives, a new layer of machine-written prose has come to stand in the way, and the people who once simply followed links now find themselves negotiating with it. Google, which has never offered a plain switch to turn its AI Overviews off, has left readers to improvise their own exits, and ZDNet has gathered four of them as a kind of field guide for those who would rather meet the open web directly. The stakes sit in a quieter place than the tools themselves: when a summary answers before anyone clicks, the publishers who
How to Remove Google AI Overviews From Search: Four Workarounds That Bring Back Blue Links
There is no off switch, but there are ways around it.
Mark
Why does a how-to about hiding a search feature matter?
Mimi
Because the feature changes behavior. Pew found people clicked a traditional link 8% of the time when an AI Overview appeared, versus 15% without one.
Mark
And what happens to the sources inside the summary?
Mimi
Only 1% of the cases where people saw an Overview led to a click on a cited source.
Luke
That's one study of 900 US adults, from 2025. It's solid evidence of a pattern in that sample, but it doesn't tell us the effect on any particular publisher's traffic.
Mark
The article also mentions the glue-on-pizza episode. Is that still a live problem?
Mimi
It's a mid-2024 example of an Overview being confidently wrong. The article uses it to show the risk, not to measure how often it happens now.
Luke
Right, and the piece offers no error rate. So "can be wrong" is supported, but "how often" is unknown.
Mark
Which workaround is the most practical?
Mimi
The author uses "-AI" on every query. It works on desktop and mobile.
Luke
That's one writer's preference, not a test of the options. Also, the article says these were the only known methods as of July 2025, and it's a Google product that can change. Web Guide itself is just an experiment that may never launch widely.
Der Puls
- Google offers no official off switch, so every escape from AI Overviews has to be assembled by hand.
- A Pew study of 900 US adults found clicks on traditional links fell to 8% when a summary appeared, down from 15%.
- Readers are being steered toward quick fixes like appending "-AI" to searches, a Chrome shortcut to the Web tab, or browser extensions that hide the panel.
- Web Guide, a Search Labs experiment, offers a middle path that puts classic links first, but it is desktop-only and could be dropped at any time.
- For those ready to leave entirely, alternatives like Dogpile and Metacrawler offer results without AI summaries, while the workarounds remain the only known routes as of July 2025.
Somewhere between a question typed into a search box and the answer that arrives, a new layer of machine-written prose has come to stand in the way, and the people who once simply followed links now find themselves negotiating with it. Google, which has never offered a plain switch to turn its AI Overviews off, has left readers to improvise their own exits, and ZDNet has gathered four of them as a kind of field guide for those who would rather meet the open web directly. The stakes sit in a quieter place than the tools themselves: when a summary answers before anyone clicks, the publishers whose work made the answer possible are left in the shadow, and a 2025 Pew study suggests readers rarely step out of that shadow when given the chance. Whether these workarounds become a lasting habit or a passing irritation will depend on whether Google decides that the older road of blue links still deserves a place on the map.
Type almost any question into Google now, even something as simple as how to clear an iPhone cache, and the first thing that greets you is often not a list of links but a paragraph written by AI. These are Google's AI Overviews, built on Gemini and rolled out in the United States in May 2024. Google says they now reach more than 200 countries and territories in over 40 languages. Yet the company has never given users an official way to turn them off, and ZDNet has set out to show readers how to get around them anyway.
The unease is twofold. Summaries can pull attention away from the publishers whose reporting feeds them, and they can be plainly wrong, as when a mid-2024 overview suggested putting glue on pizza to keep the cheese from sliding. The publisher worry rests on a 2025 Pew Research Center study of 900 American adults. With an AI Overview on the page, people clicked a traditional link only 8% of the time, against 15% without one, and only about 1% of those who saw an overview clicked a source cited inside it.
The simplest escape is to add "-AI" to the end of a query, which returns ordinary blue links on desktop, mobile and the Google app. For those who want a more permanent arrangement, there is the Web tab, which shows roughly ten plain links, and a Chrome setting that can make it the default search. Web Guide, a Search Labs experiment, takes a gentler approach by grouping links by topic with Gemini while placing classic results first, though it is desktop-only and may never leave the lab. Browser extensions offer a final route, hiding the AI panel even though the response is still generated behind it.
For readers ready to leave Google altogether, Dogpile and Metacrawler are named as options without AI summaries, and DuckDuckGo's AI assist can be switched off. As of July 2025, ZDNet notes, these were the only known workarounds. Whether Web Guide grows into a standard feature or fades away is still an open question.
Type almost any question into Google today, even something as plain as how to clear an iPhone cache, and the first thing you are likely to see is not a list of links. It is a paragraph written by AI that answers the question before you have scrolled. Those are Google's AI Overviews, and ZDNet has published a guide to four ways of getting around them, because Google has never offered an official way to switch them off.
The feature is built on Google's Gemini AI. It launched in the US in May 2024, after being unveiled at Google I/O earlier that month. Google says it is now available in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages. ZDNet's complaint is twofold: the summaries steer readers away from the publishers whose work Google draws on, and they can be wrong. The article points to the mid-2024 episode in which an AI Overview recommended using glue to keep cheese from sliding off pizza.
The publisher concern rests on a 2025 Pew Research Center study that tracked 900 US adults. When an AI Overview appeared, users clicked a traditional search link 8% of the time, compared with 15% when no summary was shown. About 58% of the adults saw at least one AI Overview, and only 1% of those cases ended in a click on a source cited inside the summary. Users were also more likely to end their browsing session after seeing one.
The first workaround is the simplest: add "-AI" to the end of a query, for example "how to turn off ACR on TV -AI." It works on desktop, mobile and the Google app, and returns standard blue links. A featured snippet may still appear, but those have existed for years, carry a prominent link to the source and usually show only a small excerpt. The author says this is the method they use on every search.
The second is Web Guide, a Search Labs experiment you can opt into by signing in, opening Search Labs, and toggling "Try the new AI-organized web results." It still uses Gemini to group links by topic, but it places classic links at the top and pushes AI summaries lower on the page. It appears under the Web tab beside All, Images and Videos. It is desktop-only, and ZDNet notes it is a test that may never move beyond Search Labs.
The third is to use Google's Web tab, normally tucked under the More menu, which shows roughly ten blue links and no AI summaries. Clicking over to it each time is tedious, so the article describes a Chrome shortcut. Under Settings, Search engine, then Manage search engines and site search, you add a new entry named Google (Web), with the shortcut https://www.google.com/ and the URL {google:baseURL}search?udm=14&q=%s, then make it the default. Firefox and Edge have comparable panels on desktop, and Firefox allows it on mobile too. One warning: if Web Guide is enabled, it changes the Web tab to show AI summaries below the classic links, which defeats the purpose.
The fourth is a browser extension. Avram Piltch of Tom's Hardware built a Chrome extension that hides the AI panel; the response is still generated, just not displayed. Others can be found in the Chrome Web Store by searching "Hide AI Overviews" or "Bye Bye, Google AI." Edge has similar extensions, and both browsers support them only on desktop.
For anyone who would rather leave Google, the article names Dogpile and Metacrawler as alternatives without AI summaries. DuckDuckGo has an AI assist feature, but it can be disabled. ZDNet says these workarounds were the only known ones as of July 2025. Whether Web Guide spreads beyond Search Labs, or is dropped, remains to be seen.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
The author says they add "-AI" to the end of all their searches because it is quick and works on mobile and desktop.— ZDNet author
Möchten Sie die ganze Geschichte?
Das Original lesen bei ZDNet ↗
Technology