What you need to know
- Google is widely rolling out AI overviews in Google Search following its I/O 2024 developer conference last week.
- The company doesn’t offer a way to turn off its Google AI features in Search by default.
- An extension for Chrome called Bye Bye, Google AI can give you more control over your Search experience, removing unwanted AI features completely.
Starting now, users will start seeing expansive artificial intelligence overviews at the top of Google Search results. Many of the features that Google was testing in a limited fashion earlier this year, like Search Generative Experience (SGE), are becoming widely available. While some users might appreciate this change, others might not — and Google doesn't give you the option to turn them off in Search settings.
Luckily, there's a Chrome extension here to fill the gap and return Google Search to its usual form. It's called Bye Bye, Google AI, and it claims to be able to hide "hide AI overviews, ads, discussions or videos." The extension is a free download on the Chrome Web Store and is an easy way to get rid of unwanted Google Search features once and for all.
Unfortunately, this might be the start of a cat-and-mouse game between third-party developers and Google. The Bye Bye, Google AI extension automatically changes the visibility of certain parts of the search results page to be hidden using CSS. Changing the display value to display="none" has this effect, and it's a very easy fix. The problem is that Google could modify its CSS to render Bye Bye, Google AI useless.
"Note that, if Google changes its CSS, we'll have to update the extension to keep pace," the extension's description explains.
So, while the Bye Bye Google AI tools work to hide AI overviews and more, for now, that may not always be the case. As we've seen with third-party extensions and clients for YouTube, such as YouTube Vanced, Google can certainly eliminate these tools if it wants to. It has become more opposed to ad blockers on YouTube specifically and could take a similar approach against tools that try to get rid of AI overviews in Google Search.
This particular extension is designed to hide the AI overviews that appear at the top of search results, summarizing web pages using generative AI. After installing Bye Bye, Google AI, the AI overviews are disabled by default. From there, users can manually decide if they'd like to hide ads, discussions or videos as well. It can be helpful in cleaning up the Google Search results page by removing things like sponsored ads and shopping links.
We don't know how long Google will let extensions like this one survive, but for now, they're a great way to avoid SGE for those who aren't interested in it.
