Forget AI. Google just created a version of its search engine free of all the extra junk it has added over the past decade-plus. All you have to do is add “udm=14” to the search URL.
While Google made its AI-focused changes known on its biggest stage—during its Google I/O event—the Web filter was curiously announced on Twitter by Search Liaison Danny Sullivan.
As Sullivan wrote:
- We’ve added this after hearing from some that there are times when they’d prefer to just see links to web pages in their search results, such as if they’re looking for longer-form text documents, using a device with limited internet access, or those who just prefer text-based results shown separately from search features. If you’re in that group, enjoy!*
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https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/google-searchs-udm14-trick-lets-you-kill-ai-search-for-good/
https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-to-use-google-search-without-ai-the-udm14-work-around/
it’s still ignoring your manually set browser language preferences and is instead using your IP to guess your location and use the primary language of that country, because google is shite
it works half the time?
If I google something in English I’m going to get results in English (plus localised ads of course). But if I have a linguistic question about English, no matter how advanced, I’m going to get surface level results in Polish.
Tbf whatever info they have on me imples they’re very confused. I get ads about: “stay legally in Poland! :)” and “leave Poland and get a job in the Netherlands/Germany! :)” then “polish lessons!” and “English lessons!”, I’m starting to think that in the eyes of the AI overlords I’m both polish and not polish at the same time.
Seems like an ordinary experience with Google. They love assuming what users want instead of letting them have options.
Those assumptions and deliberately disregarding what the user wants and replacing it with something that makes Google more money makes it such an astoundingly bad experience. But Bing and DDG somehow still give way worse results ime.
