Google will let you hide sponsored results in search

Ads in Google search results are getting a more visible label and a way to hide them if you’re not interested. Practical! The point is, you have to look at them first.

Currently, Google labels paid results on search pages individually with a “sponsored” tag on each one. This change groups them all into a collapsible section at the top of the page with a single, larger label that remains visible as you scroll. At down From the section you will see a button to hide sponsored results, so you will have to scroll through them first. Tap the button to hide them and they will stay collapsed under this sponsored header; tapping again to show sponsored results deploys them. Google says the update is now rolling out to desktop and mobile.

Over the years, Google has made its paid search results look more and more like organic results, with plenty of backlash along the way. The company moved from labeling paid results “ads” to “sponsored” around 2020. A cynical person might think this seems friendlier to a generation of people accustomed to influencer sponsorship. The company is calling this latest update an effort to “make navigation even easier,” which I guess it is. Wouldn’t navigation be easier if I could hide sponsored results before I scrolled through them? I think so! But there is no question of Google endangering its economic activity in this way.