Don't know if this has been shared yet, but it's probably worth bumping ever so often. Here's a simple hack to make google address bar searches default to the web results filter, eliminating ads, videos, A.I., and whatever other evil nonsense they're sticking in. Works in whatever browser, except Safari, and there are work-arounds for that toward the bottom of the page. Here's the short version: find the browser setting to manage search engines and press the button to add a new one. Call it whatever you want, like Google Web and paste in this URL:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14&num=100
The %s sends your address bar text to Google, the udm=42 is the web filter, and I added num=100 to show 100 results. Now make that your default search engine. In Chrome just now, I had to do this with the "more" button next to the added engine. Enjoy. Let's hope Google doesn't shut the door on this in its quest to... whatever it's on a quest to do.
Comments
I think its better to work with what we've got.
The thing is as much as these work arounds might be great, they'll probably eventually stop working so, in my oppinion, it's better to work with the google AI stuff and all that because at least it will work consistently, or you could switch to another engin. i'll be sticking with google although DuckDuckGo is nice though so if you can work with it, go for it, it has an AI thing too but its hidden away.
Cluttered search results
Some years ago, 60 Minutes (I'm pretty sure it was 60 Minutes) did a segment on Google and interviewed its staff members. The topic of simplicity came up, and how spare and lean Google's pages were compared to other contemporary websites with similar functionality. And the Google staff member replied, "Yeah, I work hard to keep it that way." Too bad Google apparently lost that staff member.
I think the concept of an AI summary at the top of the search results is sound. But their current implementation is unsatisfactory. The summary is too short and ends in an ellipsis before displaying the relevant information pretty much all the time. I'm sure there's some mechanism to display the full AI output, but I haven't had the time to figure out how to trigger that mechanism, nor would I care to re-read the initial and partial content a second time before finally getting to the meat.
Thanks for the tip, Voracious P. Brain. It sounds like a contortionist move, but I'll give it a try.
Worked like a charm
Easy to figure out how to make this happen in Google Chrome on Mac. Thanks again.
"verticals" and filters
A couple of years ago, I had a Zoom conversation with one of the Google engineers that worked a lot on search and also touted his accessibility commitment (not knowing I was blind). I'm not sure of the visual layout, but I think all those sections are what he was referring to with great pride as "verticals." Google has a great accessibility team, but their usability has plummeted on search. They're clearly pushing ad-generating tools like YouTube and shopping results, while their new A.I. toy is worst-in-class, and I don't know what's up with putting image results above web results, unless it's the fact that Gen Z processes the former way better than the latter.
Anyway, the tip is nothing but a shortcut for finding the "Filters" button, then "More," then "Web." Takes a couple of minutes to add to a browser and saves me, at least, a lot of time and frustration.
Also works on IOS Firefox, btw, which is now the browser on my phone's dock as a result.
Now, if somebody could just tell me how to get Bing to not truncate the search result title headings...