Google is in the middle of its own Innovator’s Dilemma: disrupting its $260 billion-a-year search business before someone else does. The question isn’t who will build the AI version of Google Search – the answer is obvious: Google – so our friends in Mountain View have a couple of things they’re testing.
First, they will roll out AI Overviews, their search summary tool, globally in multiple languages (including English, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish). You’ve probably seen it – instead of a list of links, users get AI-generated summaries at the top of their search results. Publishers and eCommerce sites hate it (AI bots don’t pay royalties, click ads, or cite every source), but users seem to like it… at least when the results are accurate.
The new-new thing is called “AI Mode.” Instead of surfacing links, AI Mode delivers a full-page AI-generated response. Users can interact with the AI, ask follow-up questions, and even compare products. This mode runs on a custom Gemini 2.0 version and is currently available to Google One AI Premium subscribers. It’s super interesting, but I’m not sure it’s going to be the replacement for ten blue links.
AI search is inevitable, and competitors like Perplexity and GPTSearch are rethinking the experience, but my money is still on Google. While AI Overviews and AI Mode may not even resemble what search ultimately evolves into, this is what navigating the Innovator’s Dilemma looks like. As for link-based search? We’re just counting the days.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.