Trying to disable Google's AI Overview in Safari using Terminal

[pullman]

Good morning

Has anyone tried setting Google as default search engine in Terminal and then appending a swear word as suggested in this Reddit post?

I realise it's a solution that may not suit everyone but I would find it intriguing to use such a simple workaround.

I've only found an old Stackoverflow post about editing Safari's plist in OS X, but it doesn't seem to apply to macOS. At least I'm not able to find the relevant plist on my installation of Sequoia to test if it might work to add the code that way.

Cheers
Philip

 

[bogdanw]

I don’t think that is possible in Safari. And you don’t need a swear word, just use &udm=14

You can create a QucikAction or a Shortcut. Here is the QuickAction I use to search Google US without AI.

open "https://www.google.com/search?q=$@&hl=en-US&gl=US&udm=14"

 

[MacCheetah3]

It’s not an automated method, but if you append -noai to your search, it will leave out the AI summary.

 

[pullman]

Thank you Bogdan, this is an interesting solution. I'm not so familiar with Quick Actions. Does it run automatically when you search in Safari's address field or do you need to first select google.com?

I don’t think that is possible in Safari. And you don’t need a swear word, just use &udm=14

You can create a QucikAction or a Shortcut. Here is the QuickAction I use to search Google US without AI.

open "https://www.google.com/search?q=$@&hl=en-US&gl=US&udm=14"

View attachment 2534524

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much, this is also a very elegant solution. I'm wondering if that could be automated, too, somehow.

It’s not an automated method, but if you append -noai to your search, it will leave out the AI summary.

 

[frou]

Personally I would install Userscripts and use some CSS and/or JavaScript to either hide the AI Overview element, or automatically refresh the page with a slightly modified URL. Requires some web-dev knowledge.

 

[bogdanw]

MindShield can hide it. The app is free at the moment https://apps.apple.com/app/mindshield/id1660218371

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much, that's a pretty cool solution. I do know a bit of CSS but I'm wondering if this wouldn't involve a rather steep learning curve for me.

Personally I would install Userscripts and use some CSS and/or JavaScript to either hide the AI Overview element, or automatically refresh the page with a slightly modified URL. Requires some web-dev knowledge.

 

[pullman]

Thank you again. I've installed it and it seems to do the trick but it's doesn't always work. Having selected the AI field, that field is usually gone on subsequent searches. But sometimes the results page is empty with only "related searches" and the page selector shown.

MindShield can hide it. The app is free at the moment https://apps.apple.com/app/mindshield/id1660218371

 

[bogdanw]

I’ve selected multiple elements until it disappeared. This is what it shows



I don’t see a way to export the settings.

 

[pullman]

I’ve selected multiple elements until it disappeared. This is what it shows

View attachment 2537614

I don’t see a way to export the settings.

Thank you very much Bogdan. I appreciate your help.

 

[pullman]

I have been in touch with Ulrik Lyngs who's behind Mind Shield about this. In the latest update the app (which has been renamed Viking Focus) he and the team have added an option to hide Google's AI Overview. In my testing it seems to work well on both iPhone and Mac.