Hey fellow students,
Today I want to talk about my experience with Google search results, particularly the new AI-generated summaries that appear at the top. Google has been gradually rolling out this update over the past year and introduced it in the Netherlands last May [1].
When I first saw the AI search overview, my immediate thought was: “What is this, and how do I disable it?” The first question was easy to answer, since most of us are already familiar with AI chat tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini. The second question, however, still has no answer. As far as I know, there is currently no way to turn it off. This means I had no choice but to use it. After several months of using Google as my main search engine, here are my thoughts.
Less browsing
Before the AI overview appeared in search results, searching usually worked like this: you entered a term, got a list of links, and clicked the ones that looked most relevant until you found what you needed. In the past few months, I have noticed that this process happens less often. For simple questions, the AI overview usually provides a correct answer right away. Because it appears above all other results, it is the first thing people read, which means fewer clicks on the regular links below. Many websites have reported lower traffic because of this change, and some have even been forced to shut down due to the decline [2].
Wrong answers
For short and simple questions, the AI overview generally gives good answers. However, knowing that using it reduces website traffic and potentially harms smaller sites raises an important question: is it worth it?
Some might think that those small sites at the bottom of the results are not that important anymore. Yet, those very sites provide much of the data that tools like the AI overview rely on for training. For now, the issue mostly appears with simple searches, but when the question becomes more complex, the AI often gets things wrong. According to the AI overview itself, it answers questions incorrectly 60% of the time. Google later claimed that this number was inaccurate [3].
My final thoughts
Since Google does not allow users to disable the AI overview, I decided to try DuckDuckGo, a search engine where you can turn it off. Unfortunately, I found it less effective than Google, so I eventually switched back. These days, I still use Google but try to avoid relying on the AI overview as much as possible. It simply feels better knowing that I am viewing real search results and not unintentionally hurting the websites that make the web what it is. Google should give users the choice to disable the AI overview or make it more useful instead. For example, it could show a short summary of what each link contains instead of trying to replacing the links entirely. But for now I will keep avoiding it, let me know what you think in the comments.
References:
[1]: https://tweakers.net/nieuws/234832/google-brengt-ai-overzichten-boven-zoekresultaten-uit-in-nederland.html
[2]: https://mashable.com/article/google-ai-overviews-impacting-link-clicks-pew-study
[3]: https://mashable.com/article/google-ai-overviews-2025-review
Hi Jassin, first of all, thank you for testing the Google Search for us haha. With the rise of AI tools, I feel like Google had to do something to stay up to date with other companies, like OpenAI. And I must say, I do like the idea of an immediate answer to Google prompts. However, I personally always feel somewhat cautious reading AI generated summaries, as they often use random sources. With more serious matters, I still check out more sources besides the recommended ones. I wonder how these summaries impact other people. I can imagine that the younger audience or even older people are more likely to just blindly follow the AI generated summaries. Even with the warning that the system can make mistakes, I don’t think that there is a real solution to protect people from misinformation anyway. Regardless, I appreciate this function, as it definitely reduces my searching time. Nonetheless, it is still a good reminder for people to seek a bit further than what meets the initial eye.