Google keeps adding more and more clutter to its search product, from ads to AI. You can kind of work around this by disabling AI search results or even ditching Google for an alternative. But what if you could build your own replacement that used Google's search engine, but without all the features you hate?
As noted by Mitja Rutnik at Android Authority, you can do exactly that using a little-known Google tool called Programmable Search Engine. Rutnik claims he routinely uses one custom search engine he built using this tool to search only for articles from his native Slovenia, and another to find articles only on websites owned by his employer.
To be clear, Google does not offer Programmable Search Engine with this use case in mind. Have you ever visited a website and noticed the search bar is "Enhanced by Google"? This tool is how those websites build those specific search bars. Even if you don't have a website, however, there's nothing stopping you from logging into the service, creating a search engine, and using it as your own personal Google.
To get started head to the Programmable Search Engine landing page. You will need top add a new search engine.
The initial setup doesn't do much outside of allowing you to limit your searches to a specific set of websites. (Don't worry: There are more ways to customize things later.) Click the blue Create button when you're done.
Now head back to the "All search engines" page and click the engine you just created. This is where the real customization comes in. There's the Region box, which you can use to limit the country your results come from. (U.S. websites tend to dominate the internet—maybe you're not American and only want results for your country.)
After this you can add a list of sites to search, if you want to limit things to a few set searches. Alternatively you can add a list of sites to exclude, assuming there are a few news sources or blogs you don't trust. This alone might make your search results better, assuming there are certain websites you'd rather never see again in your life.
Next head to the Look and Feel section. From here you can customize the font, color, and general look of your search page. There are a few pre-set themes to choose from, or your can dig in and customize everything yourself. You can even disable thumbnails in search results if you like.
Explore your different options and save your changes when you feel good about wht you've created. Finally, when you're done, you can head to the Overview tab. There you'll find a link to your new search engine—click it to try things out.
The results are likely to be as close to what Google offered in 2001 that you're likely to find in the mid-2020s—that is, you'll only see web results. The only possible exception will be a link to Google Image Search, assuming you enabled that feature. There are no sidebars, no AI overviews—nothing but search results from the web. This isn't the preferred search experience for everyone, obviously, but I bet some people will dig it.
You can set your new search engine as your home page if you want, or even add it to your browser as a custom search engine if you want to get fancy about it.
