How to turn off Google’s social search features

Do you hate change? Loathe disruption of your normal routines? Are you mad as a wet hen over the new Google+ results showing up when you try to do a simple Google search?

Then this post is for you. We’re going to take you through the steps of turning off Google+ results in your web searches. We’re also going to show you how to turn them back on, in case you change your mind.

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First, open up your normal Google.com search page. Go ahead and search for something. If you’re a Google+ user and you’re logged in, you might see something like this:

All those colorful arrows are pointing to the Google+ search results that you so detest — the personal profiles, the Google+ posts, the links shared on G+, and even images posted to Google+.

Here’s how you get rid of them.

See that two-button toggle switch at the top right side of the search results? The two buttons that look like a silhouetted Lego man and a picture of Earth?

If you’re seeing Google+ results in your web search, the Lego man button will be shaded. Click on the Earth button.

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Google+ social search results will be turned off. You will now be returned to your regularly scheduled web searches — no socially shared links, no long-winded Google+ posts, no pictures of your neighbor’s kids, just the pure and simple web links you’ve come to expect from Google.

If you change your mind later and decide to give Google+ search results a second shot, just click the Lego man icon.

That’s it. One click on one of two buttons. You don’t have to muddle around in your personal profile settings or look up some obscure Help page. You don’t have to sign a petition. Just point and click.

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Aren’t you glad Google made it easy?

That trick right there will turn off personal results for your current search session. If you want to turn off personal search indefinitely, click the gear in the top right corner of the search results page, select “Search settings,” and in the “Search plus Your World” section, select “Do not use personal results.”

Also, you can eliminate personal results by logging out of Google services, in which case you’ll only see general web search results.

Finally, the best way to ensure you never see anything Google+-related in your Google web searches is to not have a Google+ account in the first place. Works like a charm.

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This story originally appeared on Seonix.org. Copyright 2012