Google search has a new 'web' filter to help you find long-form articles while avoiding images and videos

It's not often that Google makes a change to its search engine that proves almost universally popular, but with the introduction of a new Web filter, the company seems to have achieved just that.

Eliciting reactions such as "Holy shit are they making the search engine useful again", the Web filter joins existing filters such as Videos, Images and Shopping that are already found at the top of search results. Rolling out right now, the only complaint so far appears to be that there is (currently) no way to set this as the default view.

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You've probably not only noticed but also been annoyed by the way search results almost always start off with some combination of images, info panels and news. It is not until you have scrolled through these results that you will be presented with the links to the text-based articles you were almost certainly looking for.

This is why the Web filter has been introduced, giving a quick and easy way to limit search results to more useful and meaningful content.

Google announced the new option on X:

As things stand, mobile and desktop users should find that the Web filter appears at the top of search results ready for use. But Google points out that filters are displayed dynamically according to how relevant they are deemed to be to the current search, so it is possible that you may have to look under the More menu to find it.

Image credit: mindea / depositphotos