[How to] Turn off Google Instant Previews

Google launched Instant Previews few days ago – a feature which adds screenshots along with the search results. Though they claim that Instant Previews will help the users to find the results more precisely, personally, I found this feature to be annoying. Unfortunately, there is no option available yet to turn off “Instant Previews”. Turning off “Instant” search feature has no effect on “Instant Previews” either. I am surprised that not many technical journalists have raised concerns about this UI clutter so far. I have written a simple script to toggle the Instant Previews.

How to Install?

Compatible Browsers: Firefox 3+, Chrome 4+

Firefox

• Install the GreaseMonkey add-on for Firefox from here and restart the browser.
• Get the script by pointing your browser to this.
• GreaseMonkey Installation dialog box will appear. Please click on the “Install” button.
• You are all set to use the script. Open Google and perform a search. Click on the link “Disable Instant Previews” at the right top to disable the Instant Previews.

Chrome

• Chrome has native support for GreaseMonkey scripts.No additional extensions are needed to use the script.
• Get the script by pointing your browser to this.
• You will be prompted with a security alert. Please click on the ‘Continue’ button.
• The script will be installed as an extension. Open Google and perform a search. Click on the link “Disable Instant Previews” at the right top to disable the Instant Previews.

Please write to me if you find any issues with the script.

Update:

New version (V 1.1) is available now.

1. Instant Previews will be disabled by default.
2. Remember 'Instant Previews' setting across sessions. For e.g., if you have disabled the Instant Previews in the current session, the same setting will be remembered for the next session as well.

Userscripts.org seems to go down frequently these days. Here is an alternate link to the script.

-- Varun

Google Instant Previews

Google has been adding lots of cool new features to Google Instant. The latest addition to the feature list is the Instant Previews. Though Google has been testing this feature for quite some time, its out for a wider audience just now. This feature will add a magnifying glass icon next to each search result and clicking on that will instantly open a preview of the web page. Interesting thing is that the relevant sections will be highlighted on the preview page. Try it out here.

Highlights

• Quickly compare results – A quick visual comparison of the search results helps you to pick the best result. Google claims that people who use Instant Previews are about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the search result.
• Highlight relevant Counter – Relevant sections will be highlighted in the preview. This will be really useful if the content you are searching for is buried somewhere in the page. This feature is not part of any of the existing search add-ons which does the same job as Instant Previews.

Google will be rolling out Instant Previews in the new few days. You can try it out from here.

Update: Pressing the right arrow key on the selected search result will also show the preview of the page. Google does not provide any option to disable 'Instant Previews' (even disabling Google Instant will not disable Instant Previews) Source: Google Operating System.

-- Varun