Google has finally accomplished the unthinkable - it has once again made Google Search truly useful. After years of adjustments that introduced more ads, shopping links at the top of results, AI overviews, and more, Google has (admittedly, discreetly) hidden a new filter that offers solely web links.
Alphabet Inc., the owner of Google, has recently embraced the AI wave as the best AI chatbots surge in popularity. While the main focus has been on Google Gemini, its AI chatbot, AI overviews have been emerging on search results, alongside the company's efforts to bring AI tools to the Samsung Galaxy AI features. Additionally, Google has partnered with Reddit for data to help power Gemini.
Users have reached the point where they believe that Google Search has been elevating Reddit in rankings to provide more data for its AI. While proving this is difficult, it's unsurprising considering many reputable websites have suffered due to recent algorithm updates.
However, there's a glimmer of hope amid the darkness. Google recently added a new filter to the 'More' section of Google Search called 'Web'. This filter eliminates Google Shopping links and snippets, restoring the classic Google Search experience, which the company has been moving away from despite being one of the largest web search engines.
Unfortunately, this filter removes some useful features introduced by Google Search. Top Stories disappear, the 'People Also Ask' section is absent, and the Knowledge Graph vanishes. Nevertheless, it's refreshing to see a classic-style Google Search results page devoid of extraneous elements, presenting only pure web results.
Hopefully, Google will modify the 'Web' filter to incorporate some Quality of Life updates and possibly make it the primary search filter (though this is doubtful). It may be incremental progress, but let's remain hopeful for its realization. Unfortunately, it's likely that Google will focus on AI for the foreseeable future, especially with ChatGPT 4o's advancements.