Harder Than It Needed To Be

I think I’m not alone in disliking Google’s AI-generated results.

As tedium.co explains, it’s technically possible to remove the AI cruft just by adding a URL parameter to your search.  It’s not perfect.  As that page points out you’re getting a 2001 presentation of today’s SEO-addled search results, so the results aren’t the breath of fresh air you might be hoping for.  But they don’t have the AI summaries, and that’s a plus.

Sites like  udm14.com make a big show of adding the parameter and removing the AI stuff for you, but I don’t typically start at the front door of search engines.  I use address-bar searching like a civilized person.

Oddly, since they’re the FLOSS favorite, but maybe not-so-oddly since they’re still beholden to corporate interests, Firefox makes it easy to add commercial providers but doesn’t make it easy to add or edit custom providers.  Finding out how took me much longer than I’m happy about. I’m sharing here in hopes that it helps someone else.

The support forum leads the way, but here’s a summary:

1. Go to about:config
2. Create, or modify, the browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh setting as a boolean and set it to “true”.  It’s undocumented.
3. Click on the “hamburger” menu, click Settings, then go to Search
   
4. Under the “Search Shortcuts” section, you should have an “Add” button that wasn’t there before.  Click it.
5. Fill in your “new” search provider, using the same term for Engine URL and Search Suggestion URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 then save your changes.
6. Slide back up to the top of the page and set your “Default Search Engine” to your “new” provider.

That’s it!

Author: H Walker Jones, Esq

A professional programmer with a sordid past involving sysadmin, tech support, and cooking. View all posts by H Walker Jones, Esq