How to turn off new Safari doohickey that blocks me from tapping on search result links

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How to turn off new Safari doohickey that blocks me from tapping on search result links

Unfortunately, I don't know what to call it, so I can't search effectively for it. After the 16.5.1 iOS update, Safari started popping up a little tab on the left side of any search results; the little tab has icons that turned out to be for sharing and bookmarking links....before I even view the pages. It's THIS annoying thing:

"Annoying" is a vast understatement. I tap a link to go to a page, and THAT shows up instead, meaning I have to tap a couple times more to get Safari to understand that I want to go to the site, not share or bookmark it sight-unseen. Why Apple decided that annoyance was somehow useful (especially when the share/bookmark button in the actual menu bar is right there, too!) is anybody's guess -- and yeah, I'm ranting -- but I just want to turn it off and stop it from popping up. What is that thing called? And (other than switching to Chrome) how can I turn it off?? Anyone? Please?

iPad

Posted on Jul 9, 2023 6:31 PM

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Answer 1

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MrHoffman

Community+ 2024

Level 10

117,855 points

Jul 10, 2023 11:27 AM in response to Chris Presta-Valachovic

Chris Presta-Valachovic wrote:

…Ok, then it's Google's idiocy. Thanks for the answer! Though now the question's changed. How do I remove Google's "sign in" and logo nonsense from Safari on all the "results" pages? Is that related to some default search thing I'm overlooking?

DuckDuckGo. Switch your default search engine in settings.

In those few cases where DDG can’t find something, add a !G to the DDG search query to cause DDG to submit the query to Google.

I find Google results are SEO’d to near-unusability, with ads galore, too much malware, and their fondness for redirecting URL results back through the Googleplex was and remains annoying.

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Answer 2

Jul 10, 2023 11:20 AM in response to MrHoffman

*sighs* I never even noticed I was logged in to Google. I signed out & the annoyance went away, though it's been replaced by Google constant "sign in" in Safari's menu bar. Ok, then it's Google's idiocy. Thanks for the answer! Though now the question's changed. How do I remove Google's "sign in" and logo nonsense from Safari on all the "results" pages? Is that related to some default search thing I'm overlooking?

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Answer 3

Jul 10, 2023 11:30 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thank you! I figured that out just before you posted your reply; yeah, I'm a bit slow. I set the defaults to Duck and problem completely vanished. I didn't realize that Google's become that obnoxious. Good lord. Thanks again!

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Answer 4

Jul 9, 2023 6:48 PM in response to Chris Presta-Valachovic

Does it show up if you’re not logged into your Google account?

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How to turn off new Safari doohickey that blocks me from tapping on search result links

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