Is Google limiting -ai Searches
Today I wanted to try and find an extension for iOS that would automatically block the google AI results on searches. I know you can type in -ai and have them not show, but wanted to make it simple and also sometimes I go from spotlight search to safari and don't add it there. So can I add a iOS extension that will eliminate google search AI and maybe other sources of AI answers like Amazon and others.
When I searched for "any good apps for removing AI from safari on iOS -ai" I was greeted with the following
This said that somehow google could not find anything like this. I know my search was not a great start but I should have found something. So I thought is google limiting my search for eliminating the AI response? So I removed the "-ai" and tried again.
Weird now it works and if you click over to web only results it displayed all of the results as such.
So searching for the same thing when removing ai responses results in completely different outcomes. So unless you're telling me that google can't handle my request I also tried "apps for removing ai -ai" and still got the same result. Most of the time I'd give the benefit of the doubt and say it's a bug, but I tested two more searches "what's going on in Boston -ai" and "great games for iOS -ai" and both worked exactly as expected.
I'm not sure why searching specifically for ai blocking tools breaks the -ai search function although I have my guesses, but if I leave on the ai then gemini will literally spell it out for me. I'm going to try out some of these ai blockers and I'll report back. If you find any to share send them to me @darwinstoffees.bsky.social