Google may be testing a new “Simple Search” feature that may dumb-down the search results when you want something more simple. Google shows the “Simple Search” +Topics refinement button at the top of the mobile and desktop results, when tapped on, it readjusts the results to give you a different set of results.

Here is a screenshot from @dansully, he sent me more photos similar to what he posted on X:

At first I thought maybe it was some weird refinement option Google was showing Dan but I spoke to Dan and walked through more examples and it worked for other unrelated queries:

Then turned on simple search:

Plus, I cannot replicate this at all, either on desktop or mobile but Dan can.

Can you replicate this?

What do you think “Simple Search” is and does?

Forum discussion at X.