As you know, Google search is dead

The era of “10 blue links” is officially over.

At the Google I/O conference on Tuesday, Google announced an overhaul of AI-powered search centered around a reimagined “intelligent search box.” The company says this is the biggest change to this entry point to the web since the search box was introduced more than 25 years ago.

Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google search may direct users to an interactive, AI-powered experience. Google is also introducing tools that can dispatch “information agents” to collect information on your behalf, as well as tools that allow users to build personalized mini-apps tailored to their needs.

The resulting experience bears little resemblance to what people imagine, a Google search that has long been defined by ranked links to websites containing the information they need.

In the revamped search experience, the new search box no longer dictates the type of search experience or mode you choose at the beginning of a query, but instead simply expands to accommodate longer, more conversational queries. Google also says it will have a new AI-powered query suggestion system that goes beyond autocomplete and lets you create more complex and nuanced queries.

In Google’s AI overview, the company said starting Tuesday users will be able to ask follow-up questions in AI mode.

Google is also introducing agent capabilities and AI-powered interactivity to the search experience. This means you’ll spend even less time clicking on the traditional blue links that Google searches return.

Starting this summer, you’ll be able to create, customize, and manage multiple new “information agents” within Google Search. These agents work in the background 24/7, tracking changes on the web and notifying you of new information. For example, Google suggests that you can let your agents track market movements based on customer parameters.

The underlying technology here is powered by AI, which improves its functionality, but the idea itself is not new.

In 2003, Google launched Google Alerts, a change detection service that emails users when new web results match their search terms. Of course, back then the Web was small and easy to manage, so it became part of many information workers’ tool sets. (While that service still exists in some form, it is no longer the way most Web users obtain new information.)

Information Collection Agent is an evolution of Google Alerts. Not only can you spot changes, but you can also understand them.

“We send out alerts that track market movements in specific sectors using very specific parameters, and our agents develop a monitoring plan that includes the tools and data they need to access, such as real-time financial data,” Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, said in a press conference. “And we will track those changes, notify you when conditions are met, and provide comprehensive updates with links and information that allow you to dig deeper,” she added.

This change means that “searching the web” will increasingly be performed by AI agents rather than humans. Instead, users will focus on acting on the information provided by agents rather than manually clicking links.

Links will be an afterthought in upcoming changes to the search results experience that build on Google’s previously released AI search features, including short summaries called AI Overview and AI mode for conversational search.

AI Overview is currently used by over 2.5 billion users per month. Meanwhile, conversational search mode, launched last year, now has over 1 billion monthly users. (For comparison, ChatGPT’s weekly active users are 900 million as of the beginning of this year. This suggests that ChatGPT’s engagement is more frequent, with users coming back repeatedly throughout the week, while Google has more total unique users exposed to its AI features over the course of a month.)

Thanks to the combination of Gemini and Google Antigravity, the company’s agent development platform, search results look more like interactive web pages.

“With Search, you can build a custom experience for each question, from dynamic layouts and interactive visuals to a persistent, stateful project space that you can return to again and again,” says Reid. One way Google is integrating these new features is through the use of generative UI (user interface), which builds custom widgets and visualizations on the fly in response to users’ search questions.

For example, you can imagine how a question about black holes in the universe could lead to an interactive visual that brings the concept to life, Reid said, adding that users can ask follow-up questions and watch Google respond in real time with brand new visuals.

Google says the new system was built in partnership with the Google DeepMind team and uses Gemini Flash 3.5. It will be free to everyone who uses Google this summer.

Additionally, with Antigravity, Google lets users build customizable, stateful experiences (think “mini-apps”) directly within search using natural language commands. Again, this is not about searching for information, it’s about action. For example, you can build a meal planning app that uses information from your calendar to help you decide what to prepare and when to eat, or you can build a fitness app tailored to specific goals.

Combined, these changes could further reduce referrals from Google to publishers already suffering from AI Overview referral declines. As a result, some media operations that rely on advertising have been forced out of business, and the situation is likely to worsen further in the future.

There is little time left for publishers to adapt. The new search box is coming this week, and the generative UI is expected to arrive this summer. Both are free. Mini-app building capabilities and information agents will initially roll out to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer.

But Google’s long-term plan is to make its AI technology more widely available, including Spark, a personal AI agent that, like many AI features, will eventually be free.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at a press conference ahead of I/O, “One of the reasons we’re so focused on delivering a frontier model – highly capable, yet very efficient, fast and low-cost – is because we want to bring it to as many people as possible, and we think that’s where we can shine.”