Unfortunately, this throws the baby out with the bathwater - you also lose all the useful non-AI widgets, like calculator, unit conversions, instant weather, maps, etc.

There are other tools for that, but I confess that I've gotten used to defaulting to the address bar for random queries like that - the browser is always open.

This pairs quite well with &tbs=li:1 ("Verbatim" search).

FYI You can set your default Chrome search engine to be a site search, including one that searches https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s

At least on mobile, this one has way too much text cramped on that screen with too many distracting colors (I understand that the colors are from Google’s logo). Some of the text is promotional links (not necessarily harmful to the user).

A simple “old style Google” search page, with a clear title that it’s AI free Google search and just one link to explain what &udm=14 is, would look a lot nicer. As it stands now, most people wouldn’t know or understand what this is because they’d skip long walls of small text.

The link to the page explaining how to add this as a default and every other promotional link can go into that page.

AI is simultaneously overhyped in application but under-appreciated in terms of long-term implications.

Hi all, I made this in literally an hour after I saw a very strong response to my original blog post about the URL code: https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/

The problem I was attempting to solve here was one of convenience, really. I think Google is intentionally trying to make its AI search look better by burying more traditional results in a way that is not easy to find. Given how widely used Google is, I just do not think it’s fair to end users that there’s a lightweight option that gives people 90% of what they want from Google results, and they’re hiding it for what appear to be business reasons. I guess in a way, it’s a simple protest dressed up as an easy-to-use tool.

I trust that most HN users are likely smart enough to figure out how to work around the Google issue without this site, but I think the solution is ultimately for the people who can’t or won’t make those changes themselves, or just want an easy starting point.

My other goal with this was an attempt to make the code “famous,” by making it something that people knew about. On that count, it appears successful, as the &udm=14 fix has been covered broadly in media and has been frequently shared on social media.

This link has gone pretty viral in the last four days, well beyond the tech sphere, and at current count has seen more than 100,000 visitors since Wednesday. Not bad for a site that is literally a few Tailwind classes and a simple HTML page built by hand.

Doesn't fix ranking unfortunately

Fyi, google just announced a new "Web" search option (in the ...More menu next to Images, News and so on). This skips all the AI stuff, too.

for all the costs associated with running the new features, i wonder why there is not a search preferences option to toggle AI responses?

it seems that even people engaging in shady activities tend to google search while logged in (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40456722), it seems like a simple and ergonomic solution for most people, which would also work across devices.

I hope we get extensions that auto-append this soon.

I have a personal distaste for the multi-syllable word in the headline. I acknowledge that may be a 'me' thing, though I do have reasons which are off-topic.

But seeing it prominently displayed on the homepage of this site is offputting, regardless of my feelings about the word in general.