How to turn off Google's AI Overviews in web searches
Then things get existential as I contemplate how long a self-cannibalizing system can sustain itself — 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's a lot to think about when all I want is TSA's latest lithium-ion battery regulations.
Curiously (and unhelpfully) the first result when you Google 'How to turn off AI Overviews in Chrome' doesn't 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'll see:
Note: Turning off 'AI Overviews and more' 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't be turned off.
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's how you too can avoid wasted time (and energy) so you can search like it's 2024.
Click the three dots in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser
Go to Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines and search
Under Site search, click the Add button
Enter Name: Google/Web
Enter Shortcut: https://www.google.com/
Enter URL: {google:baseURL}search?udm=14&q=%s
Click Add
Then, (hat tip to Tom's Hardware 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.
Now, go Google 'the best laptop power banks' 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.
In that same Tom's Hardware article, Avram Piltch links to the extension he built, which is a super easy way to hide the AI Overviews from sight. It'll still generate the response, you just won't 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 'All' search results tab with knowledge panels, video results and the like.
To turn off the AI Overview for Chrome on your phone, I'll direct you to the fine folks at tenbluelinks. Just open the link in your phone's browser and follow the steps for Android or iOS.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Engadget
20 minutes ago
- Engadget
LeBron James is reportedly trying to stop the spread of viral AI 'pregnancy' videos
It seems like LeBron James' legal team has been trying to stop the spread of viral AI videos featuring the basketball star. As 404 Media reported , a law firm representing James has sent a cease and desist letter to a person behind an AI platform that allowed Discord users to make AI videos of James and other NBA stars. As 404 noted, these videos have been circulating for awhile but it's one particularly strange clip that seems to have gotten James' lawyers involved. The video, which reportedly racked up millions of views on Instagram, shows a pregnant James being loaded into an ambulance after telling an AI Steph Curry to "come quick our baby is being born." 404 reports that at least three Instagram accounts that had shared the clip have since been removed, though the video is available on X . The founder of the AI platform used to make the videos also posted about the cease and desist letter he received . It's unclear what is in the letter, or if James' lawyers were also in touch with Meta about the videos. We've reached out to the company for more info on its rules. Of course, LeBron James is far from the only public figure to grapple with unwanted AI versions of themselves. Social media scammers routinely impersonate celebrities to promote sketchy products and other schemes. We've previously reported on such scams involving deepfakes of Elon Musk and Fox News personalities that have proliferated on Facebook. Jamie Lee Curtis also recently had to publicly plead with Mark Zuckerberg to take down deepfaked ads of herself. A still from a clip created with Google's Veo (left) and images generated by Meta AI (right) (Screenshots via Veo and Meta AI) But the videos of James are a little different. They don't feature fake endorsements and seem to be more of a prank meant to go viral in the way that lots of "AI slop" does. And James and other celebrities will likely continue to have a difficult time preventing these kinds of deepfakes from spreading. Some quick testing by Engadget showed that it's relatively easy to get AI chatbots to create images and video of "pregnant LeBron James." We first asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot to make such a photo. All chatbots initially refused, saying that such an image could go against their guidelines. But when given an image of James and asked to "make this person eight months pregnant," Google's Gemini delivered a 7-second clip of the basketball star cradling a pregnant belly. (We've reached out to Google to clarify its rules around such content.) Likewise, Meta AI seemingly had no reservations about producing images of "pregnant LeBron James" and promptly delivered many such variations. While these creations aren't as detailed as the initial video that went viral, they do highlight how difficult it can be for AI companies to prevent people from circumventing whatever guardrails may exist.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
AI referrals to top websites were up 357% year-over-year in June, reaching 1.13B
AI referrals to websites still have a way to go to catch up to the traffic that Google Search provides, but they're growing quickly. According to new data from market intelligence provider Similarweb, AI platforms in June generated over 1.13 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites globally, a figure that's up 357% since June 2024. However, Google Search still accounts for the majority of traffic to these sites, accounting for 191 billion referrals during the same period of June 2025. One particular category of interest these days is news and media. Online publishers are seeing traffic declines and are preparing for a day they're calling 'Google Zero,' when Google stops sending traffic to websites. For instance, The Wall Street Journal recently reported on data that showed how AI overviews were killing traffic to news sites. Plus, a Pew Research Center study out this week found that in a survey of 900 U.S. Google users, 18% of some 69,000 searches showed AI Overviews, which led to users clicking links 8% of the time. When there was no AI summary, users clicked links nearly twice as much, or 15% of the time. Similarweb found that June's AI referrals to news and media websites were up 770% since June 2024. Some sites will naturally rank higher than others that are blocking access to AI platforms, as The New York Times does, as a result of its lawsuit with OpenAI over the use of its articles to train its models. In the news media category, Yahoo led with 2.3 million AI referrals in June 2025, followed by Yahoo Japan (1.9M), Reuters (1.8M), The Guardian (1.7M), India Times (1.2M), and Business Insider (1.0M). In terms of methodology, Similarweb counts AI referrals as web referrals to a domain from an AI platform like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, Claude, and Liner. ChatGPT dominates here, accounting for more than 80% of the AI referrals to the top 1,000 domains. The company's analysis also looked at other categories beyond news, like e-commerce, science and education, tech/search/social media, arts and entertainment, business, and others. In e-commerce, Amazon was followed by Etsy and eBay when it came to those sites seeing the most referrals, at 4.5M, 2.0M, and 1.8M, respectively, during June. Among the top tech and social sites, Google, not surprisingly, was at the top of the list, with 53.1 million referrals in June, followed by Reddit (11.1M), Facebook (11.0M), Github (7.4M), Microsoft (5.1M), Canva (5.0M), Instagram (4.7M), LinkedIn (4.4M), Bing (3.1M), and Pinterest (2.5M). The analysis excluded the OpenAI website because so many of its referrals were from ChatGPT, pointing to its services. Across all other domains, the No. 1 site by AI referrals for each category included YouTube (31.2M), Research Gate (3.6M), Zillow (776.2K), (992.9K), Wikipedia (10.8M), (5.2M), (1.2M), Home Depot (1.2M), Kayak (456.5K), and Zara (325.6K). Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Android Authority
an hour ago
- Android Authority
Fresh Pixel 10 leak shows off the series in more than just Moonstone
Google TL;DR More renders of the Pixel 10 series have emerged online. This leak also includes images of the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Buds Pro 2. It has been a busy week for Pixel 10 series leaks. Google even joined in on the fun by releasing a teaser, which was followed up by an accidental leak of official imagery. If that wasn't enough to satiate you until next month's Made by Google event, even more renders have now emerged. Earlier today, tipster Evan Blass took to X (formerly Twitter) to release a batch of good-quality renders of the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel Buds Pro 2, and Pixel Watch 4. All of those renders featured the devices in their new gray color that Google has dubbed 'Moonstone.' However, it's believed that the color may be called 'Sterling' for Google's earbuds. If you were hoping to see some of the other color options, Blass has now shared a second wave of images. While we do see more of the Moonstone color here, we also get a glimpse at 'Indigo' (blue), 'Jade' (green with gold trim), and 'Obsidian' (black). The Indigo colorway will be exclusive to the base model, while Jade will be available across the Pro models. Tagging along, the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Buds Pro 2 also make an appearance in these images. This leak reveals that Pixel Buds Pro 2's new colorway will be Moonstone. Meanwhile, the Pixel Watch 4 has a purple Active Band attached that's believed to be called 'Iris.' The new Pixel family is scheduled to launch on August 20. Rumors claim that the base Pixel 10 will cost $799, $999 for the Pixel 10 Pro, and $1,199 for the 10 Pro XL. It's still unclear what Google will charge for its foldable.
