AI answers crowd results so real links are hard to reach

Raised by 61 people over 7 years (2020–2026), in 7 of them.

What people report

2022-08
it doesn't just show some links and summaries, it seems to want to try to give me "solutions" which aren't always quite what I want
Read the comment ↗
2024-10
Half the SERP is an "AI Overview", below that are some sort of page summaries (not links)
Read the comment ↗
2025-08
every search on google is bad UX between the AIOs and the millions of indian SEO scammers
Read the comment ↗
2026-05
The AI results were bad beyond all human understanding
Read the comment ↗
2026-11
It trains people to be increasingly dependent on whatever google tells them instead of checking and reading multiple sources, and verifying information for themselves.
Read the comment ↗

Principle

Aesthetic and minimalist design

People report that AI overviews, sponsored blocks, videos and shopping modules compete with the link list, so the results they came for are pushed down and harder to scan, with no setting to remove the AI summary.

A fix

Keep a stable position near the top for organic links and let people collapse AI overviews by default or switch them off in settings, remembering that choice across searches.

Grouping, principle and fix drafted with Claude and reviewed by Justusability. Counts are people whose comment Claude labelled a usability complaint about this issue; see Method for how, and its limits. Something wrong here?

All 65 source comments