Google accused of a ‘new low’ over plans to paste adverts on ‘annoying’ new AI search results – how to hide them
GOOGLE users have expressed frustration at the tech giant’s latest big change to their famed search engine.
The firm has started rolling out new AI-generated answers which appear at the top of the page.
It’s launched in the US first before landing in other countries – though some people in the UK can test it out now.
By the end of the year, Google intends to make the tool – known as AI Overviews – available to more than 1billion search users.
The feature’s arrival alone has already annoyed some internet surfers, who have called it “intrusive”.
But now another change has caused some rage online – ads.
A week after announcing its big AI boost, Google has revealed that it’ll start testing search and shopping ads in the AI Overviews results next.
“Frustrating users enticing them to click on ads is a new low!” one person wrote on X.
Another commented: “You can now have an ad-pocalypse while searching how to de-wrinkle a shirt.
“The future is here, and it’s brought to you by the highest bidder.”
Screenshots suggest the ads appear as a distinct sponsored block in the AI’s response.
“They will have the opportunity to appear within the AI Overview in a section clearly labeled as “sponsored” when they’re relevant to both the query and the information in the AI Overview,” explained Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s Vice President and General Manager for Ads.
HOW TO HIDE GOOGLE'S AI OVERVIEWS
If you're not keen on Google's AI Overviews there are two ways to hide it.
The official way is by using Google’s new Web filter on the search engine page.
This can be found within the “more” tab at the end of the top navigation bar.
Unfortunately you can’t make this the default, so you’ll have to select it each time.
However, there is an unofficial Chrome extension that someone created to hide the AI results.