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Google Search’s “udm=14” trick lets you kill AI search for good | Ars Technica

Tack "&udm=14" on to the end of a normal search, and you'll be booted into the clean 10 blue links interface. While Google might not let you set this as a default, if you have a way to automatically edit the Google search URL, you can create your own defaults.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

If you're tired of Google's AI Overview extracting all value from the web while also telling people to eat glue or run with scissors, you can turn it off—sort of.

It's actually pretty nice, showing only the traditional 10 blue links, giving you a clean (well, other than the ads), uncluttered results page that looks like it's from 2011.

Most of these only mean something to Google's internal tracking system, but that "&udm=14" line is the one that will put you in a web search.

If you don't want it to be the default, shortcut/alias will let you selectively launch this search from the address bar by starting your query with the shortcut text.

Omitting "gw" will still launch Google's AI idiot box, which will probably tell you that rocks are delicious.

So, while this Band-Aid solution is interesting, things are getting so bad that the real recommendation is probably to switch to something other than Google at this point.

The original article contains 888 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

probably tell you that rocks are delicious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_candy

Nurse_Robot ,

It's a shame that they'll certainly prioritize nerfing this over fixing actual problems

Thekingoflorda ,
@Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world avatar

wait, is the AI thing automatically enabled in the US?

lucas ,
@lucas@fitt.au avatar

@Thekingoflorda @gedaliyah seems to be, yeah

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Hmm, not for me for some reason.

Edit: looks like it depends on the search.

I dunno, I don't use Google almost ever.

Thekingoflorda ,
@Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world avatar

now that's just stupid.

brbposting ,

Must be logged in, in my experience.

Saw it appear on a first search from a logged in US Google account, then disappeared on a second search* - but allowed itself to be re-enabled from Labs.

*granted, I was testing the pizza glue search

Thekingoflorda ,
@Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world avatar

Crazy. Normally it's annoying that tech companies limit some features to US only, this time I'm all for it.

Introversion ,

A small proxy site was written to do this for you: https://udm14.com/

deweydecibel ,

Can also just add a custom search engine to Firefox with the search URL string:

https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s

No need to go through a completely separate site.

fluckx ,

And this way you'll be sure the intermediate site isn't also scraping your data.

Introversion ,

That site is open source, in GitHub. Not much to it.

atrielienz , (edited )

I'm not a programmer. Can I add this to the url string I already have as my default custome search?

Example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14&q=%s

Or is this the same thing as yours:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14

brbposting ,

IDK about the order but limit yourself to one query equals percent S there.

To help understand why (since it’s simple enough!):

google dot com/search?q=%s

becomes

google dot com/search?q=YourSearchTerm

cuz it replaces the %s with what you type.

So

google dot com/search?q=%s&udm=14

looks right to me

atrielienz ,

I think I may try both and see what happens just because I'd like to know. Thanks for the response though.

brbposting ,

You should, easy enough.

Even with %s in a URL twice it’ll probably work, just show the query twice in the navigation bar.

surewhynotlem ,

"kill ai search for good"

Yeah, ok. It's a feature and Google will kill it eventually.

indepndnt ,

I never get these things where people are like "ah ha, we outsmarted the company by using an undocumented* feature they provide!" But like, they control the feature and they know it exists, you're not getting away with something.

* or sometimes even documented

surewhynotlem ,

I tricked target into lowering prices by using this coupon they had on their website! Mwhahaha.

Google will just use this as a way to flag their tech savvy and anti-ai users. It's just another data point.

Johnmannesca ,
@Johnmannesca@lemmy.world avatar

It's easier to just use duckduckgo

ma11en ,

With the Microsoft AI.

dustyData ,

DDG only uses the web indexing from bing. There's no AI on DDG, and the search result is created by themselves, without MS tracking or fingerprinting.

lemann ,

DDG has an experimental wikipedia "AI" that pops up near wikipedia results, but theres a button you have to click manually to generate the summary AFAIK

rodneylives ,

The operator for ensuring something appeared in a search used to be "+", but they stopped using that for some ?^?^?mYsTeRiOuS rEaSoN^?^??

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

Bing increased their prices recently.

karika ,

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/08/duckassist/

PlantObserver ,

So far this actually seems like a good, privacy respecting implementation of a chatbot. Good for those who don't want to go the full offline selfhosted route IMO

Adderbox76 ,

I actually don't think its a "bad" idea to have an AI helper like a copilot or a Gemini on my computer. But I don't want it integrated into every system. I don't want it to have any more access than I choose to give it each time I use it.

I can see myself making use of a sandboxed AI, installed kind of like a flatpak or an appimage. I can call it up, ask it to do something for me and if it needs access to something temporarily in order to do it, it can ask nicely and I say sure on an as hoc basis and then shut it down again.

Salix ,

There’s no AI on DDG

Uh.. The settings for AI Chat and DuckAssist are both on by default when you use DuckDuckGo. You can see them in Settings -> AI Features

dustyData , (edited )

But even activated, results don't default to an AI chat, that's a different beta page you have to go through intentionally. I've never noticed the Assist because I'm not in an English speaking region and it is not available at all for me. But the point stays, they don't use Microsoft's AI. They use GPT-3 and Claude.

FiniteBanjo ,

I just wish I could search a term of more than 2 words and get relevant results rather than pages that contain at least one of the words in high volumes. That's the only reason I ever use google, for years now. Encasing the words in quotes doesn't seem to function at all on DDG, either.

LodeMike ,

I've found that search engines in general, including Google, really don't like to listen to the whole thing I typed in.

brbposting ,

Google still listens to quotation marks, at least.

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/4958825c-4b39-4677-af43-a7199a377007.jpeg

Won’t take it for granted. Has worked for a decade or more but who knows how much longer.

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

It's worked since basically the launch of Google as a search engine.

brbposting ,

Should’ve doubled up on my decade estimate!

vanderbilt ,
@vanderbilt@lemmy.world avatar

DDG has had cost issues with some of the more complex queries. Exclusions (-) for example are very expensive, as Bing recently raised their prices. I think this is why search has gotten worse with DDG recently.

brbposting ,

heh to find my comment with these screenshots:

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/789e6258-6548-4613-9de2-bbeb269d9490.jpeg

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/fcacb2db-fe54-4967-8d54-2326a18e72ac.jpeg

I had to use Google:

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/b8c297e9-2d17-4a34-9667-53b3c41f9499.png

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/7e9cc140-a2f6-49de-bce1-34174f3184df.jpeg

beeb ,

Here are the same queries with Kagi (I was interested to see the difference)

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/96d3a703-acaf-42f3-a3c8-421ae1c6cf47.webp

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/12428a84-b296-4fec-83ac-93080c1fa9ec.webp

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/f693adf4-9fdf-428f-b93a-bafbc7dddb52.webp

brbposting ,

Nice, how about for an odd emoji someone just used elsewhere (but then Voyager ran out of RAM I think):

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/f2bb85e1-ee54-43a4-a148-cd9d62da10fc.jpeg

beeb ,

Here (didn't find the right one, almost)

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/c6f25208-7fa5-4e2a-a1e9-55c3b6e77953.webp

beeb ,

Third and fifth result are about the correct one

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/e5f872af-b18d-4164-bd14-1a5ed4e2b211.webp

brbposting ,

I was gonna ask if your OS displays 🧑‍🧒 in color, or if you were searching a different emoji.

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/e64f0bf4-b390-4d0b-8ad9-b3333ede0ff8.jpeg

Less than two hours later, Google forgot how to find the right emoji!

Regarding my pondering, now I see Emojipedia moved the by-platform Emoji icons to the Designs tab.

In the meantime I learned Wikipedia redirects 🧑‍🧒 to “Family” :)

beeb ,

Yeah the colors come from the os, my keyboard shows the monochrome one when I pick it. That was all very interesting!

kubica ,
@kubica@kbin.social avatar

You can still have a laugh with the new page, like that extreme confidence highlighting the wrong answers.

PrimeMinisterKeyes ,

Disinfotainment at its best.

BearOfaTime ,

People sill use Google search?

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Yes.

This is like coming into a thread about Windows and doing the i uSe aRcH bY thE wAy thing

I don't use Google but your comment is childish

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemmy.world avatar

It’s perfectly fine to be surprised that people use things. Facebook is still here, I’m surprised. Heck, until the news that ICQ was shutting down, I thought it had been dead for decades.

What’s really tiresome is comments like yours

admin ,
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev avatar

I think they provide a very reasonable reality check / a bit of reflection. And it sounds like you could use one, if you're surprised that Facebook still exists.

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemmy.world avatar

You’re entitled to your opinion!

admin ,
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev avatar

Thanks, that's a relief!

Hugh_Jeggs ,

If you're surprised that people still use Google to search then I hope you don't get a job as a statistician 😂

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemmy.world avatar

I think people will use whatever is the default set in their browser.

That said, I do all my searching through “AI” that can search for me, sort through 50 pages, and give me the relevant links. Works every time.

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Are you like, about 14?

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemmy.world avatar

Are you like, about 70?

harrys_balzac ,

Probably the same people who still happily use Facebook and buy a $1500 laptop so they "run" huge programs like ancestry.com and Gmail.

Chozo ,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

People still use [most popular product/service in its industry]?

Cheems ,
@Cheems@lemmy.world avatar

People still drive cars? 🙄

sandalbucket ,

I can’t help but be curious, does udm=13 or udm=15 do anything?

CraigeryTheKid ,

Don't try it! You'll regret it.

capital ,

Show google who’s boss by still using the product.

z3rOR0ne , (edited )
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

Truthfully, the way I cut out most of the noise everywhere is to search using duckduckgo lite on Librewolf/Mull browsers. That with ublock origin (and block cookie banners), noscript, and redirection extensions to nojs alternatives like libreddit, scribe, invidious, along with putting various bypass paywall scripts into ublock's filter list. It all just adds up to an overall better experience with fast, to the point results.

spiderman ,
@spiderman@ani.social avatar

what does that parameter mean though?

PraiseTheSoup ,

Ultra dumb mode. Others only go up to 10, but googles goes all the way to 14.

Grangle1 ,

This won't last long. It's too public now. Google will find a way to kill it and force their AI on you as much as possible.

ahal ,

Google's too smart for that. They know there's a big backlash against AI in the tech savvy crowd and that it's bleeding users to competitors. So they offer this escape valve that they know the techies will easily find and use, but which 99% of the population will never even look for. This way they can still push AI on almost everyone while at the same time retain as many disgruntled techies as they can.

laurelraven ,

You're giving them a lot more credit than is probably warranted. They've killed off so many popular things and workarounds that really cost them nothing to leave available for the tech savvy they've very much shut down to force people to use the systems they want to push.

googie hasn't been tech savvy friendly for a while now

ahal ,

I can think of a couple examples, like leaving the boot loader unlocked on their pixel phones. You might be right though.

ilinamorato ,

Ok. But what benefit would they gain by forcing people into AI search? That's not rhetorical, I'm legitimately asking. Are you saying this is just about controlling the experience? Because they already did, and all this is doing is weakening that control. It's certainly not easier or more cost-effective. They'll get LLM training data from either interface. The other things they shut down cost them development or maintenance or even just server space, but even if they managed 100% adoption of AI search they'll still need to maintain their old platform as a data source for the AI and for the below-page results. So what financial incentive do they have to push people to a more expensive, less-liked endpoint for that data?

laurelraven ,

I've given up trying to understand what benefit companies like googie get from most of the shitty consumer-hostile decisions they make. You'll have to ask them when they inevitably shut that down what they get from doing that.

ilinamorato ,

Learning what their profit motives are is helpful in the future, so that you can learn how to extract value from the corporation. This is the game in a capitalist hellscape: figure out how to get more out of them than they get out of you.

laurelraven ,

Yeah, my problem though is that I think about actual profitability when I try that while they're playing a game of shells moving and manipulating quarterly profits to make a company look profitable so they can cut and run while the the company burns behind them

Then there's whatever the fuck companies like Microsoft and Apple and googie are doing that seem like horrible ideas to me that nobody seems to like and yet it never seems to hurt their bottom line enough to stop.

At this point I honestly think the only reason those three are still profitable is they've cornered their area of the market and there's just nobody for their customers to move to in adequate numbers to make a difference

But, I'm pretty jaded at this point... Maybe you're right and the googe will leave that workaround. At this point it won't matter to me because I don't use their search anymore and don't think I ever will again, and I certainly don't trust any new tech coming from them to not be dragged out back and shot the second I start to rely on it, so I just don't bother anymore

wagoner ,

Google kills its golden goose search engine and is thought here up be too smart to disable a workaround... I'm doubtful.

Halcyon ,
@Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

But it's not a workaround. This Web-Filter is a function that Google offers by choice. It's in the menu on the search page.

Halcyon ,
@Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Why should they? The Web-Filter is a function that Google implemented themselves. It's not a secret trick or something.

Gluten6970 ,

lol it's just what happens when you click More -> Web which is something they just introduced like a week or two ago. I'm all for hating on tech giants, but comments like this go beyond cynicism/jadedness and go right to conspiracyville.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

"For good."

Until Google finds a workaround.

Chozo ,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

They don't need to "find" a workaround. They put this there. This isn't some sorta "hack", it's literally a feature Google built into the page. This feature will exist for exactly as long as Google wants it to.

AceFuzzLord ,
@AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee avatar

The problem is that they absolutely love to kill things. It's a matter of when, not if, they're gonna kill this within the next maybe year or so. I can't see them keeping this long after all the AI backlash has quelled.

Marthirial ,

It works. In Vivaldi just add the parameter at the end of the search URL in the search settings configuration.

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