Google’s search bar has barely changed during its entire existence.
It didn’t have to.
You just needed enough space to type a few words into a skinny white box. Then you hit enter, and Google pointed you to the rest of the internet.
Millions of websites competed for your attention with Google as your guide.
But last month, the company made one of the biggest changes to Search in its history.
For the first time since 2001, Google redesigned its search box. It’s larger — and more conversational — because it’s been built around AI from the ground up.
But Google isn’t just redesigning Search…
It’s also completely redesigning our relationship with the internet.
Search Meets AI
For decades, Google Search worked like a map. You typed in a question, and it pointed you somewhere else for the answer.
That basic system helped shape the modern internet.
But Google has slowly been moving away from this model.
Over the last few years, the company introduced AI Overviews, replacing some search results with AI-generated summaries. It later rolled out AI Mode, allowing users to ask follow-up questions and interact with Search more like a chatbot.
Now Google is pushing those ideas even further.
For one, the search box is becoming more conversational. Instead of typing a few keywords, users can now ask long, detailed questions, upload images and videos and continue asking follow-up questions without ever leaving Search.
Google is also experimenting with AI agents that can search on your behalf.
For example, apartment hunters could ask Google to watch listings for them and send alerts when something they like becomes available.
That represents a major shift in the way Google operates.
Google used to help you navigate the web. Today, it wants to become the destination.
And that’s not a subtle distinction.
Instead of using Google to reach the internet, the company now wants to become more embedded in your internet experience.
And AI is the key to making that happen.
Google says users are quickly embracing its AI products. AI Overviews now reach roughly 2.5 billion users. AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion users. And Gemini has grown to around 900 million active users.
Image: Google
What’s more, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says people who use AI-powered search features actually end up searching more often.
And there may be a simple reason for that.
The old Google worked best when you already knew what to ask. You typed “best laptop” or “weather Miami.”
But people use AI differently. They ask complete questions like: “I need a laptop for video editing, under $1,500, and I travel a lot. What should I buy?”
That gives Google far more context. And longer questions also reveal more about what people actually want.
But there’s an even bigger change happening behind the scenes.
You see, the internet used to run on a simple arrangement. People created content, and Google helped other people find it.
Under that model, everyone benefited. But AI complicates this relationship.
Today, Google can read a publisher’s content, summarize it and deliver an answer directly on its own page.
And that’s starting to break the rules both publishers and creators built around.
Recent studies suggest that click-through rates for informational searches with AI-generated summaries have dropped by nearly 60%.
Meanwhile, a recent survey of publishers revealed that they expect search traffic to fall roughly 43% over the next three years.
Traffic has long been the fuel that powered much of the internet economy. But fewer clicks means fewer visitors. And fewer visitors can mean fewer ad dollars, fewer subscribers and fewer reasons to create content in the first place.
As one analyst quoted in The New York Times put it: “The open web is on its way out. With A.I., Google is reducing everyone to raw data providers.”
And that’s bad news for the publishers, creators and businesses that relied on the old arrangement.
But it’s been paying off for Google.
Last year, ad clicks rose 6%. At the same time, the company charged advertisers 7% more per click.
And since 2022, Google’s annual profit has more than doubled to $132 billion.
Just a few years ago people were asking whether ChatGPT might be the death knell for Google’s business.
But it increasingly looks like the company has pivoted to a winning strategy. Instead of fighting AI, Google has folded it directly into Search.
Which means, instead of Google pointing us toward the rest of the web…
It’s starting to decide what we see before we ever get there.
That changes the rules of the internet.
Here’s My Take
For over two decades, the job of Google Search was simple.
It helped people find information.
Now, with the help of AI, Google wants to organize, summarize and deliver information to you. But as AI becomes more central to how we find information, the internet is starting to change in ways that go well beyond a redesigned search box.
The way we use it seems to be changing too.
In fact, the most important consequence of AI-powered search may have nothing to do with Google at all.
It may have more to do with us.
I’ll explain what that means in our next issue.
Regards,
Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing
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