This question lives under how to use Google People Also Ask, and Google put it there first: when we searched “How to use Google People also Ask?”, the box showed “Why is the People also ask section not working?” as a child question. So you are in good company. The good news is that the box is rarely broken. It only appears on some searches, and your filters, extensions, location and Google’s own experiments decide the rest.
The search doesn’t have a box
People Also Ask is not on every results page. Semrush Sensor data from August 2024 found it on 51.85% of searches, which leaves nearly half without one. That share swings, too. In early July 2022, Search Engine Roundtable reported it falling from about 60% of queries to about 30%, based on Semrush and RankRanger data.
The kind of search matters. SEOZoom’s guide reports that queries starting with “what”, “why”, “when”, “where” and “who” trigger the box 86% of the time, and that a 10-word query triggered it 72% of the time against 28% for two-word searches. If you searched a single word or a short name, try asking a full question instead.
You’re on the Web filter (or a udm=14 shortcut)
In May 2024 Google added a “Web” filter that “shows only text-based links”, in the words of Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan. He said it was for people who want “text-based results shown separately from search features”. On desktop it sits in the row of filters above the results or under “More”. On mobile, he said, Google tends to show it without the “More” step. It has since become a common way to dodge AI Overviews.
People Also Ask goes with everything else. The filter maps to a URL parameter, udm=14, and researcher Henk van Ess notes that adding it returns the classic blue links with “no Overview, no ‘People also ask'”. Some extensions add it to every search automatically. The PlainSearch extension, for example, offers exactly that. If your browser’s default search uses udm=14, you will never see the box. Click “All” above the results, or remove udm=14 from the address, to bring it back.
An ad blocker or extension is hiding it
Hiding People Also Ask is a popular tweak. In June 2022, developer Matteo Mazzarolo published uBlock Origin rules that remove the box by matching the text “People also ask”. Extensions do the same with a checkbox: PlainSearch lists “People also ask” among the modules it removes, next to AI Overviews and ads. A filter list you subscribed to long ago can carry similar rules without you noticing.
The test takes a minute. Open an Incognito window and search again. Chrome only runs an extension in Incognito if you have switched on “Allow in Incognito” for it, so most of yours will be off. If the box is back, turn your extensions off one at a time in a normal window until you find the one hiding it.
Your location, language or account changes the page
Google says plainly that results differ between people. Its help page lists location, language and device type as context it uses. For signed-in users with Personalized Recommendations on, “personalization might affect the order in which certain content blocks appear”, and turning personalization off removes “any features that depend on personalization”. Elsewhere Google notes that “some features, like details about sports teams, aren’t available in all regions.”
That is how a colleague in another city can see a box you can’t. A WebmasterWorld thread from July 2021 tracked People Also Ask vanishing for many US searchers from 1 July while UK users still saw it, and one poster saw it signed in but not signed out. If the box matters for your work, compare signed in with signed out, and check which Google domain and language you are using.
Google is testing something
Google experiments with this box constantly, and tests reach some people before others. A few that Search Engine Roundtable reported: six questions by default instead of the standard four (June 2024), removing the “more results” button from the box on some searches (November 2024), and AI Mode prompts inside People also ask (June 2025). If the box looks or behaves differently from what a colleague sees, a test is a likely reason. Look again tomorrow.
AI Overviews are taking the space
AI can make the box feel broken when it isn’t, in two ways. First, when Google shows an AI Overview it sits at the top of the page, which can push People Also Ask below the first screen. Scroll before you give up. It varies by search: on the three pages we harvested on 27 September 2026, no AI Overview appeared at all.
Second, the answers inside the box have changed. Google was spotted testing AI Overviews in place of featured snippets inside PAA in November 2024. By the first week of September 2026, AlsoAsked’s data put AI Overviews at 97% of PAA answers, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. If you open a question and get an AI summary instead of a quote from one site, that is how the feature works now, not a fault. More in is the People Also Ask section AI?.
The box shows, but questions won’t open
When the box is there but won’t open, the reports we found point at the browser. An Apple Community thread from April 2022 describes People also ask dropdowns that would not open on an iPhone 13 in Safari. The suggested fixes: turn off content blockers (Settings, then Safari, then Extensions), clear website data, try another network and force-close Safari. Google’s own help forums carry the same complaint, in threads from October 2024 and, for the Chrome app on iPhone, April 2025. The same steps apply in any browser.
What to try, in order
- Rephrase the search as a full question.
- Click “All” to leave the Web filter, and remove udm=14 from the address.
- Scroll past any AI Overview.
- Search again in an Incognito or private window.
- Turn off content blockers and clear Google’s site data.
- Compare signed in with signed out, and check your Google domain and language.
- Try another browser or device.
- If nothing changes, wait a day. It may be a Google test.
Once the box is back, here is where to find People Also Ask questions and how to reveal more of them.