Google makes it easy to turn off personalized search results with an option that sometimes appears at the bottom of the results page, according to Search Engine Roundtable. After searching for something, scroll down the page and find the “Try without personalization” link. Click or tap it, and Google will load a new page without personalized results.
The link may not appear in all searches. Some results for me include a message at the end of the results page that already says “Results are not personalized”. This could be a user error – maybe I have other settings that prevent it from appearing, or I’m using the wrong queries. But for some reason, I’ve had to turn off personalized results for searches on my iPhone much more often than on my Mac.
“This change makes it easier for users to get an accurate understanding of whether their results have been personalized, and gives them the ability to explore non-personalized results,” spokesperson Ned Adriaans said in a statement. “We also allow people to easily adjust their personalization settings at any time.” Adriaanse adds that “while we used to show this information in the ‘About this result’ section on individual results, this display is more accessible and clearer.”
Adriaans also says that the link “gives people the option to temporarily view results that are not personalized” – so note that if you click the link to try results without personalization, you won’t change your personalization settings permanently.
You’ve been able to get non-personalized search results for a long time; as reported by the Search Engine Roundtable in 2007, you can see non-personalized results by adding the “&pws=0” parameter to the end of your Google search URL. You can also turn off personalized search in your Google account settings.
