Google is overhauling Search to use a conversational, AI-driven approach. Users can choose an AI mode when starting a search. Even without selecting AI mode, search results may include an AI Overview with a chat box for follow-up questions. Opening the chat box shifts the experience toward a ChatGPT-like interaction rather than a traditional search engine. The update also includes the ability to enlist AI agents that can automatically notify users about events such as a favorite band going on tour. Reactions are mixed, with some users viewing the change as excessive chatbot integration and recalling prior issues with AI Overviews. Others point to Google’s dominance and legal scrutiny over maintaining a monopoly in online search.
"Now, when you search on Google, you're given the option from the start to use AI mode. Even if you opt not to use AI mode, you might get a search result with an AI Overview, which will now include a chat box for you to ask follow-up questions. Once you open the chat box, Google begins to look more like ChatGPT than the search engine that's ingrained itself into our lives for decades."
"Google announced that it is overhauling Search to embrace a conversational, AI-driven approach, even inviting users to enlist AI agents to automatically notify them if, for example, their favorite band were to go on tour. "This is the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago," said Elizabeth Reid, leader of the Search organization at Google."
"This announcement didn't elicit the reaction that Google would've hoped for. Instead, many users see this as yet another example of a tech company squeezing AI agents and chatbots into everything it can, making it impossible to navigate the internet without encountering a chatbot. Especially after the rocky rollout of Google's AI Overviews - remember when Google told people to stare into the sun? - users are not eager for another adjustment."
"The new Google Search, which Reid describes as "AI search through and through," is sure to alienate users. Generative AI aside, some users have also grown weary of Google for its sheer dominance - a U.S. District Court ruled in 2024 that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search."
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