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Search Google in the basic version
An ordinary search field. The result asks for Google's basic variant, the HTML page, without the interface that depends on JavaScript.
Basic version Asked for this search
The search opens with gbv=1. What you type goes straight to Google. This page never sees the text.
What gbv=1 asks for
gbv points at Google's basic variant. With gbv=1, the request is the simpler results page, in HTML, without the interface that depends on JavaScript.
That is the request described for someone who wants the search in that simpler version. The address carries gbv=1. After you search, it is there in the address bar.
Google can still open the ordinary page. The parameter is not an account setting, and it applies to that search.
Language and region stay in the query. When the request is accepted, what changes is the shell of the results page.