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How to Stop Search Results from Automatically Appearing Below the Google Search Bar
How many times have been at Google’s homepage typing something when all of the sudden a bunch of distracting search results pop up right below where you’re typing? To some users, Google’s Auto Suggest features is useful. However, other users find it extremely distracting.
A reader, Karen, recently wrote in asking how to turn this feature off. I sent her an email, detailing what she needed to do. I have provided the instructions below, so you can turn it off as well.
First of all, here is an example of Google’s Auto Suggest feature in action below. All I did was type in “I am extre” before I hesitated. Sure enough, Google automatically fetched some related results.
This example clearly illustrates why some people find this feature so annoying. If you look at the final result, you will see “i am extremely terrified of chinese people”. Why this even appears here is a discussion for another time, because there is no way that the phrase “i am extremely terrified of chinese people” is the seventh most popular phrase when people start to type “i am extr”. Perhaps Google is terrified of the censorship that exists in China. Who knows?
How to Turn off Google Auto-Complete
To turn this feature off, simply go to Google’s Homepage (opens in a new window) and click on the Preferences link, shown outlined in red in the screen shot below:
Next, you want to scroll all the way to the bottom of the Preferences page until you see a screen like the one shown below. Under the Query Suggestions heading, you want to click on “Do not provide query suggestions in the search box.”
Be sure to click on the Save Preferences button at the bottom of the page for this to take effect. After your preferences are successfully saved, you should see a screen like the one below stating “Your preferences have been saved”.
There! Now you can enjoy the Google search box without all of those unwanted search suggestions.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them below!
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3 Responses to “How to Stop Search Results from Automatically Appearing Below the Google Search Bar”
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Hi I have tried this option over and over. It does not save the preferences. When you enter back into the “preferences” it shows that it is correct, however, it still appears
Hi Laura, are you using the Google Toolbar, or just typing into the normal Google search box?
The toolbar will require a different settings change for it to stop displaying the “Autosuggest” search results.
Let us know.
omg thanks so much xx