Google’s Web filter: view links without changing the search question
Use the documented result filter and keep its limits clear: it changes the view, not every future search or the authorship of linked websites.
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Google documents a Web filter that shows text-based links without features such as AI Overviews. It is a result-view choice after a search, not a permanent account-wide switch that removes every AI feature from every Google surface.
This revision was checked against Google Search Help on November 9, 2026. It replaces the earlier guide's unverified custom-search templates, URL parameters and broad mobile-browser instructions with the supported filter and a practical distinction: changing the result view is different from changing the query itself.
Use the documented result filter
Run the search, then look for Web among the result filters below the search bar. Select that filter for text-based website links. Google's refinement guidance says the available filters and their order are dynamic; use the available filter options rather than assuming Web always occupies the same position.
Google's AI Overviews help identifies this as the way to see links without the overview feature. The same documentation describes AI Overviews as a core Search feature rather than an account setting that can simply be turned off. This page does not promise that the filter becomes the default for every later search or entry point.
Keep the original question when comparing the views. If you both change the query and select a different filter, a changed result list cannot be attributed to the filter alone. That matters when a reader is trying to find sources rather than merely make a summary box disappear.
Why adding a minus term is a different operation
Reece Rogers' February WIRED report described a query-suffix workaround and noted inconsistent results across platforms and uncertainty about how long it would work. That is a dated observation by the reporter, not a permanent Google product guarantee or a test performed by UnliveNews today.
Google's operator documentation gives the minus sign a separate purpose: excluding a word. A hypothetical search about AI regulation followed by a minus-AI term is therefore not just a cleaner view of the original question. It introduces an exclusion that can conflict with the topic the reader wanted.
The useful comparison is procedural: a filter selects a result type, while an operator changes the retrieval instruction. An incidental effect on the appearance of an overview does not make those two operations equivalent. This guide supplies no universal suffix claimed to disable all AI results.
Labs controls concern experiments
Google's help also describes opting out of AI-in-Search experiments in Labs. That experimental setting and the core AI Overview feature are discussed separately in the documentation. Turning off an experiment should not be presented as proof that every core overview is disabled.
Record which thing was changed: an experimental enrolment, a result filter, a browser preference or a query term. If a result differs afterward, this record helps identify what the observation actually supports. It also prevents a guide from announcing a global setting based on a change limited to one view.
The older article supplied exact browser menus and parameter combinations without verifying their behaviour on the named platforms. Those prescriptions have been removed. An undocumented shortcut that once worked is not the same evidence as a documented consumer control.
Link-only results are not a guarantee of human-written pages
The Web filter describes the kind of Search result shown. It does not certify the authorship, accuracy or independence of every destination. A linked page can itself contain generated text, advertising, errors or outdated information. Removing a summary panel does not perform a source assessment for the reader.
For research, open the relevant page and check the author, date and evidence supporting the claim you need. Google's own help warns that AI responses may make mistakes and encourages checking supporting links and other results. The same habit remains useful in a link-only view.
Likewise, a visual change is not a verified privacy change. Seeing fewer interface elements does not establish different search-history retention or account-data handling. Those questions require their own settings and documentation; this page does not claim that the Web filter changes them.
A repeatable comparison without a permanent-setting promise
Use a non-sensitive sample query, record its text and compare the default result view with Web while keeping that text constant. Note the date, platform and visible filter selected. This is a proposed check for the reader, not a report of a new cross-platform benchmark by UnliveNews.
If Web is unavailable in that interface, the observation is limited to that interface and query. It does not justify inventing a browser-wide template or promising that a particular extension will remain compatible. Consult the current Google refinement guidance for the controls actually offered.
The supported route is modest and useful: select Web when you want the documented text-link view, preserve your intended query and distinguish a local view choice from an account-wide opt-out. That avoids sacrificing the search question merely to suppress one presentation feature.
Sources
Google AI Overviews guidance: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/14901683?hl=en
Google filters and operators: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433
Original coverage: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-hide-google-ai-overviews-from-your-search-results/