You won’t find the UDM parameter in any official Google documentation. There are no specifications or explanations of its purpose or functionality. Still, it caught the attention of researchers, technical SEO experts, and curious nerds examining Google’s URLs.
Despite its simplicity, UDM is worth examining. It can be useful in certain scenarios, especially SEO experiments, offering clues about how Google’s algorithms behave. Reverse engineering might even help uncover opportunities for smarter optimization strategies.
What Is the UDM Parameter?
When added to the base Google search URL (https://www.google.com/search?q=), the UDM parameter alters the type of search results returned.
For example, when using &udm=14, the search engine switches to “Web” mode, which presents traditional organic search results without any additional features such as AI Overviews or informational boxes (also known as knowledge panels).
Other values produce different result types. For example:
- &udm=2 triggers the familiar image search results;
- and &udm=7 corresponds to video search results (similar to what users see under the “Videos” tab).
I’ll be providing more examples in the table closer to the end.
Some of these modes align with the navigation options shown below the Google search input field (like “Images,” “Videos,” or “News” – see the image below), but they can also be accessed or tested directly using the UDM parameter for more targeted control.
Example Google Search URL with udm=14:
https://www.google.com/search?
sca_esv=8fe472cf0c0bad30 (identifier for Google’s search session)
&sxsrf=AE3TifN1JDnibtg1YEYPl7dXcCg:1751916799447 (CSRF token for security)
&q=dummy+phrase (search query)
&udm=14 (user display mode discussed in this article)
&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6M… (tracking token)
&sa=X (type of search action)
&ved=2ahUKEwie_YbUvquOAxWzGhAIHSo… (source of search token)
&biw=1597 (browser inner width)
&bih=1011 (browser inner height)
&dpr=0.9 (device pixel ratio)Naturally, when a user manually changes the search type by clicking on the “Images” or “Videos” tab, Google automatically updates the URL and includes the corresponding UDM parameter in the address bar.
If the UDM parameter is not specified at all, Google defaults to its standard mixed-results view – “All mode” – which may include a combination of organic results, featured snippets, AI overviews, shopping boxes, and other elements.
Who Discovered the UDM?
Since Google has not officially documented this parameter, a natural question arises: Who discovered it and how? Or was it some kind of leak?
Not at all. Anyone curious enough can easily spot the UDM parameter when examining search URLs. Google’s search links often contain numerous GET parameters, many obscure or technical.
Among them is the UDM parameter, but you’ll also find many other interesting ones that relate to various elements used by Google for technical purposes and user analysis (I’ll touch on more of these near the end).
What Does the UDM Stand For?
The most common expansion of UDM in Google is the Unified Data Model, which is the Google Security Operations’ standard data structure for storing information received from various sources, also known as a schema. However, this has no connection to the UDM parameter used in Google Search.
Since UDM is not mentioned in any official Google Search documentation, we can only speculate about its true meaning. Based on its behavior, I suspect that UDM stands for User Display Mode.
This interpretation aligns with how the parameter functions: it originally depended on the user manually switching between different view types, effectively determining which search mode would be displayed.
UDM=14: Google Without AI
As AI search has become more pervasive, the UDM parameter has started appearing in the context of getting “clean” Google search results without AI-generated elements like AI overviews.
As it turns out, adding the UDM=14 parameter in the search URL indeed displays the most traditional results, currently shown under the “web” tab.
This comes as no surprise. Queries like “disable AI Overviews” or “turn off AI search” are increasingly common, reflecting user frustration with hallucinated or inaccurate AI content, especially in niche or technical topics where data is scarce or misleading.
One might speculate: could it be that some researchers deliberately cut themselves off from AI-generated suggestions?
AI-Free Search (via UDM14)
Some users are so committed to the classic blue links that they’ve even developed browser extensions that automatically add the udm=14 parameter, ensuring that Google always displays search results in “Web” mode by default.
You can easily find them under names like UDM14 or Google No AI mode. One of the more popular Chrome extensions is Hide Google AI Overviews, along with Google UDM=14.
Another interesting solution is a proxy website – udm14.com – which is definitely worth checking out, if only for its amusing “denitrification Konami code” — a homage to classic video game cheat codes.
It is worth noting that the mentioned extensions and the proxy website don’t disable AI globally or at the account level. They simply automate the addition of &udm=14 to search URLs.
Google “-AI” Trick
If you want to exclude AI features only in specific searches, you can try adding “-AI” to your search query. Google will then return results free of AI, as using the minus operator to exclude the term “AI” is preventing the AI Overview from triggering.
Note that it’s not an official Google feature but rather a trick that, as a side effect, stops the AI Overview from appearing.
A simple way to see that it’s not fully supported is when we try to find AI-related content together with the -AI operator… AI-related sites disappear from SERPs, together with all domains with the .ai extension.
This limits its usage, requiring the user to pay special attention to a limited list of Google results related to AI. A good example of such an effect is trying to search for “ChatGPT -AI,” which, together with AI Overviews, effectively excludes the ChatGPT (OpenAI) website from the results.
List of All UDM Parameters
As said, the UDM parameter can take on multiple values. Here’s the summary of all currently known UDM parameter values and their result types:
| UDM | Display Mode | Status | Example URL | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Local business results (Google Places) | active | Pizza | “Places” category menu |
| 2 | Image search results | active | Cute puppies | “Images” category menu |
| 3 | Product search results (Google Shopping) | active | Laptop | “Products” category menu |
| 4 | “Perspectives” content filter | deprecated | Blogging tips | |
| 5 | Lodging search (hotels) | active | Hotels in NYC | “Lodging” category menu |
| 6 | Learn (educational results) | experimental | Photosynthesis | “Learn” category menu |
| 7 | Video search results | active | Funny dog videos | “Videos” category menu |
| 8 | Job listings | active | seo analyst job | “Jobs” category menu, US limited |
| 9 | Product sites (external shopping) | experimental | best headphones | turns on additional product filtration options |
| 10 | Job sites (external job listings) | deprecated | seo analyst job | |
| 11 | Local directory sites | deprecated | Restaurant | |
| 12 | News search results | active | World news | automatically replace udm with “tbm=nws” |
| 13 | Flight options (Google Flights) | deprecated | London to Chiang Mai | moved to https://www.google.com/travel/flights |
| 14 | Standard text web results (no AI) | active | History of Egypt | “web” category menu, commonly described as “No AI mode” |
| 15 | Attractions and things-to-do results | active | Things to do in Rome | “Things to do” category menu |
| 16-17 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 18 | Forums/discussions | active | Gardening | “Forums” category menu |
| 19-27 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 28 | Shopping (Google Shopping) | active | Sneakers | Turns into shopping mode, US only |
| 31 | Flight search sites (external) | deprecated | Cheap flights | |
| 32 | Train schedules/sites | deprecated | Train schedules | |
| 33 | Bus schedules/sites | deprecated | Bus tickets | |
| 34 | Other transport websites | deprecated | Transport options | |
| 36 | Book search results (Google Books) | active | Best novels | “Books” category menu |
| 37 | Additional product results | deprecated | Wireless earbuds | “Products” category menu |
| 38 | Exact-match video results | deprecated | Specific TED Talk | “Videos” category menu |
| 39 | Short video results (YouTube Shorts/TikTok) | active | Rice cooking | “Short videos” category menu |
| 40-43 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 44 | Visual matches (similar images) | active | “Visual matches” category menu (require searching by image) | |
| 45-47 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 48 | Exact text matches | deprecated | AI search optimization | “Exact matches” category menu |
| 49 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 50 | SGE – AI Overview (AI-generated results) | active | Generative AI | “AI mode” category menu, US only |
| 51 | “Homework” help results | deprecated | Euler’s identity | “Homework” category menu |
| 52-55 | unknown | deprecated | ||
| 56 | Simplified (“clean”) results | deprecated | Simple query | minimalist mode, simplified HTML code, without AI results |
| 57-59 | unknown | experimental | ||
| 60 | unknown | experimental | latest available udm parameter at time of writing this article (August 2025), all tries of above numbers automatically redirect with deletion of udm parameter |
Other “Hidden” Google Search Parameters
Beyond UDM, Google search URLs contain many other parameters, some tied to layout, personalization or analytics.
For example:
- sxsrf: Related to request validation and session protection
- ved: Used for tracking user interactions
- sca_esv: Possibly linked to experiment versions
Some are documented in Google’s Programmable Search Engine documentation, but most remain internal.
These parameters can influence search layout, A/B test experiences, and user behavior analysis, but they shouldn’t be tampered with casually.
Below, I’ve included a table with descriptions of some of these parameters. However, it should be noted that this is not a complete list, as Google does not publish an official index of all parameters in use.
Moreover, Google likes to update or change those parameters depending on ongoing experiments and product development, so many of them are likely already deprecated.
Google Search URL Parameters
| Query Parameters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| q | search terms | Main search query. |
| oq | original terms | Original query before suggestions/rewrite. |
| aqs | chrome..69i57… | Autocomplete / query-suggest metadata. |
| as_q | words | Advanced: all these words. |
| as_epq | “exact phrase” | Advanced: exact phrase. |
| as_oq | word1 OR word2 | Advanced: any of these words. |
| as_eq | -exclude | Advanced: none of these words. |
| as_filetype | pdf, docx | Advanced: file type. |
| as_ft | i / e | Include (i) / exclude (e) file type. |
| as_sitesearch | example.com | Advanced: site/domain filter. |
| as_qdr | d, w, m, y | Advanced: date range. |
| as_occt | any, title | Advanced: where terms occur. |
| as_rights | cc_* flags | Advanced: usage rights/licensing. |
| Language and Localization | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| hl | en, pl | UI language. |
| gl | US, PL | Country bias for results. |
| lr | lang_en | Restrict results to a language. |
| cr | countryUS | Country restrict. |
| uule | encoded string | Precise location (base64-encoded). |
| Filtering and Personalization | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| safe | active, off | SafeSearch level. |
| pws | 0, 1 | Personalized results on/off. |
| nfpr | 1 | Disable “Did you mean” / rewrites. |
| filter | 0, 1 | Near-duplicate host filtering. |
| tbs | qdr:h, qdr:d… | Tools: time, size, color, etc. |
| Search Modes and Result Types | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| tbm | nws, vid, isch… | Vertical: news, video, images, etc. |
| udm | numeric ID | Undocumented display mode. |
| Pagination and Layout | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| start | 0, 10, 20… | Results offset. |
| num | 10–100 | Results per page. |
| newwindow | 1 | Open results in new tab. |
| cs | 0, 1 | Case-sensitivity flag. |
| gbv | 1, 2 | Basic HTML view. |
| Client and Source Tracking | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| client | firefox-b-d | Client identifier. |
| sourceid | chrome | Source identifier. |
| source | hp | Origin of search (home page, etc.). |
| sclient | gws-wiz | Search client type. |
| channel | trow, apps | Request channel. |
| rlz | encoded | Google install/tracking code. |
| Technical Parameters | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| ie | UTF-8 | Input encoding. |
| oe | UTF-8 | Output encoding. |
| biw | px | Browser inner width. |
| bih | px | Browser inner height. |
| dpr | 1, 2… | Device pixel ratio. |
| Session Identifiers and Tracking | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| ei | encoded string | Unique search/query ID. |
| ved | encoded hash | Tracks interactions on SERP. |
| sxsrf | encoded token | Security token (anti-CSRF). |
| sca_esv | numeric/hex | Session/experiment timestamp. |
| fbs | encoded string | Internal tracking parameter. |
| iflsig | encoded string | Internal signature. |
| Special Function Parameters | ||
| Parameter | Typical Values | Description |
| kgmid | entity ID | Knowledge Graph entity. |
| si | encoded ID | Image search internal param. |
| ibp | key:value | Image block options. |
Note: This table includes both commonly used and rarely documented URL parameters identified in Google search results URLs. Many of these parameters are undocumented by Google and their exact internal functionalities can vary or change over time.
What Is the Value of UDM for SEO and AI Search?
Although Google doesn’t officially document the UDM parameter and SEO specialists don’t pay much attention to it, it’s a useful tool, particularly in testing and analysis.
Using it, SEO experts can:
- Isolate organic results (e.g., udm=14) to evaluate real SEO performance
- Compare visibility across result types like video, image, or shopping
- Track changes across SERP modes during Google updates
- Bypass AI distractions to audit how your content ranks in traditional SERPs
- View A/B testing layouts without interference from AI features
In a world where AI and SERP elements shift rapidly, having a reliable way to isolate and analyze “pure” organic results is a major advantage. The one you shouldn’t underestimate.
Wrapping Up
The UDM parameter may be undocumented, but it offers a hidden doorway into understanding Google’s evolving search experience. For SEO professionals, it’s a stealthy tool to cut through the noise, isolate key SERP features, and gain deeper insights, especially as AI search continues to disrupt traditional SEO practices.
Whether you’re reverse-engineering search behavior, building tools to filter AI content, or simply nostalgic for the old Google, udm=14 might just be your new best friend.
