Google search has changed a lot since its launch in 1998, and particularly in the last couple of years. What used to be a simple tool that helped us find useful websites is now packed with ads, product suggestions and, increasingly, AI-generated content.
This last addition is proving to be the most controversial. Google has already added AI summaries to search results in the US and plans to roll them out internationally. The problem is that the summaries are often garbage. They can contain information that's plagiarised, incorrect or both, and you have to scroll all the way past them to find the web results you were looking for. In our own recent survey, 79.24% per cent of respondents said they don't find Google's AI summaries useful. Fortunately, it turns out there is a solution (no, it doesn't also bring back the old Google logo).
Adding the "&udm=14" parameter to a Google Search removes all the extra's and turns it into a oldschool search with basic text results. (See example, left = normal right = udm=14) pic.twitter.com/jZIQ1Evfy4May 21, 2024
In the X post above, tech enthusiast and podcast host Rick Dronkers demonstrates a handy hack for getting simple Google search results with no AI nonsense (or any of the other extras, for that matter). Simply add the parameter '&udm=14' to the URL after you've performed a search, and Google will show an stripped back version of its search results. All the AI content, summaries, questions and image and map results will be gone.
Using the '&udm=14' parameter tells Google to cast aside its personalisation algorithms as well as AI features. The result is a pure and simple list of handy websites, allowing us to search just as if it were 1998.
Admittedly, having to type code in the address bar after every search is hardly the most user-friendly solution, but it's one of the best we have unless Google sees sense and adds an easily accessible button to turn off its AI results (and that seems unlikely, since it announced more Google Search changes at Google Marketing Live 2024). Some people have noticed different results when swapping the '14' for other numbers.
image 1: Normal searchimage 2: &udm=14 appended to search urlimage 3: &udm=12 appended to search urlDifferent results too depending on the number appended. Anyone see any documentation on this? It's interesting behavior. pic.twitter.com/ucRskA58GJMay 21, 2024
Alas, there is currently no universal setting to disable generative AI results across Google searches. One option is to use a third-party Chrome and Firefox extension like Bye Bye, Google AI made by Avram Piltch at our sister site Tom's Hardware (Avram describes Google's AI Overviews as a "raging trash fire that threatens to choke the open web with its stench").
There's also the option to use a proxy site such as udm14.com, which redirects search results using the udm=14 parameter. It describes the code as the "desenshittification Konami code". Come on Google! Give us a native desenshittification button in your own Search UI.
