You can no longer search for “ignore” on Google

Earlier this week, Google rolled out a brand new search experience, highlighting AI summaries and tossing out the traditional “10 blue links” at the bottom of the page. But the sheer volume of Google search means there are a lot of edge cases that the company doesn’t seem to have taken into account.

For example, this is what you’ll get now if you type “ignore” into a Google search.

Google has drawn some heat on social media for this, and it’s easy to see why. As you’ll notice, the Merriam-Webster link is still there, but you have to scroll through a large amount of empty space. For most users, this single response is the only thing you’ll see. More importantly, the AI ​​response offers no conceivable value to the user searching for the word “ignore.” It’s just a broken tool.

For context, here’s the same research at Bing, which was less aggressive with its AI summaries. It’s not perfect, but there is some useful information to be found here.

I’ve been a professional technology journalist for nearly 15 years, and before today, I can’t think of a single time when a Bing search result was more valuable than its Google counterpart. There really is a first time for everything!