The new Google Search has an embarrassing problem: just one word can make it crash

In recent days, Google users have discovered that typing the word "disregard" in the search bar produces an anomalous result: instead of the usual dictionary definition tab, the engine returns an AI Overview response followed by a large white space, under which the traditional links and reference to Merriam-Webster remain buried. This behavior manifested after the release of the Search update announced at Google I/O 2026, which brought AI-generated summaries to the top of the results and pushed the traditional ten blue links towards the bottom of the page.

The problem isn't limited to "disregard". The same anomalies have been documented for "ignore", "stop", "remember", "skip", and "dismiss": all words that, taken individually, are interpreted by AI Overview as instructions rather than search keywords. The typical response observed on the query "disregard" is along the lines of "Understood. Message disregarded", while "skip" also works in Italian with **"Ricevuto! Non c'è problema. Ho interrotto l'azione precedente. Se hai bisogno di aiuto, vuoi iniziare una nuova ricerca o approfondire un argomento specifico, dimmi pure cosa vorresti fare."

The behavior does not seem to be deterministic: in incognito mode, the same query "disregard" returned the correct dictionary tab once and the AI response once again the second time. For many users, especially on desktop, the result is that the only visible content on the first screen is that useless AI response, and reaching the definition requires scrolling past the empty block.

Google's Official Response

Google has confirmed the problem: in a statement gathered by Engadget, a company spokesperson stated that AI Overviews are misinterpreting certain queries that can be associated with actions, and that a fix is being rolled out. Google's note also specifies that the bug is not directly related to the updates announced at I/O 2026, but rather concerns AI Overviews in their current configuration. The technical clarification thus seeks to refute some narratives that linked the anomaly to the integration of the new Gemini 3.5 Flash model as the default in AI Mode, announced right on the stage at Google I/O.

A Context that Doesn't Help the Transition

The episode fits into a not-so-brief sequence of critical issues for AI Overviews. An analysis by the New York Times in April 2026, based on the SimpleQA benchmark, estimated an error rate of 9-10% on AI-generated summaries, a percentage that, applied to Google's five trillion annual searches, translates to over fifty million incorrect answers every hour. The trigger word bug is different, but it certainly does not bode well for the situation.

Google has not indicated a precise timeline for the patch nor published a complete list of the affected verbs. Standard definitions should return once the fix is rolled out; it remains to be understood whether the intervention will act on the model itself or only on the routing layer that decides when an AI Overview should replace the dictionary tab.