Google Search now lets you hide sponsored results, kind of

None of us love having ads everywhere, but as least with Google Search, its ads are both a known quantity, having been around for decades at this point, and reasonably unobtrusive — product boxes notwithstanding, normal Search ads are just standard-looking text results. Today we’re getting a minor shake-up to how that all works, and before you start panicking too much, this might actually include a bit of an improvement.

Let’s start with some neutral changes first. Google’s not changing how many ads you’ll likely see in Search results, nor making them appear any larger. What is getting bigger, though, is the “Sponsored posts” label, making the distinction between those and organic results all the more clear.

That label will also demonstrate persistence, so even when you scroll past the initial “Sponsored posts” header, it will linger at the top of your screen for as long as you’re still viewing that content.

But then there’s the actual good news, which is that Google’s implementing a new “Hide sponsored results” button you can tap to quickly get rid of those and focus on the rest of your results. Granted, it’s at the bottom of the sponsored links (so you’re going to have to scroll past them all first, anyway) but we’ll take what we can get.

With AI Mode, Search today is still a very different experience than it was just a few years ago, and navigating those results can require a whole lot more attention and discernment than scrolling past sponsored posts ever required. Even as the goalposts for getting the most out of Google Search may be moving, we’re still thankful to see a few smart changes being made so that dealing with some of these tools is just a little more straightforward.