You knew it was coming: Google begins testing AI-only search results
arstechnica.com
AI Mode could be the future of Google, but it’s currently just an experiment.

Google has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning “to find things on the Internet.” Soon, Google might just tell you what’s on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won’t show you the 10 blue links at all—Gemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.

This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.

With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it’s only the start of Google’s plans for AI search.

Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It’s launching as an opt-in feature via Google’s Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far.

  • grumt@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    6 minutes ago

    Been using 4get for some time now, I don’t think a search engine can get better than this

  • ayyyEnglish
    1·
    22 minutes ago

    Alright should I switch to Lyca or HotBot?

  • GaMEChld@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 hours ago

    I mean their search results have gone to absolute shit anyway, the AI is probably better at this point.

  • jaemoEnglish
    6·
    2 hours ago

    Wait, google does searches now too? Wow they have a service for everything.

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.orgEnglish
    6·
    5 hours ago

    Been using Ecosia for months now. DuckDuckGo and Startpage before that. I’m pretty happy with Ecosia search results, can’t complain.

    • renlok@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      23 minutes ago

      I’ve tried so many different search engines over the last year to try getting rid of Google and ecosia seems pretty good, also I still use yandex pretty often

  • GenosseFlosse@feddit.orgEnglish
    121·
    6 hours ago

    Ok, but why should I go to Google for ai answers when I can get the same from openai, other models or even local installations without all the ads?

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      6 hours ago

      Unfortunately this isn’t about you, but the 90% of people who don’t understand what AI is at all and don’t give a shit where the responses come from as long as “scorpio dream meaning high school teacher truck” and “can you gregnant with cousin?” Give them answers they like

      /s to an extent, but here we are

  • Pondis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    7 hours ago

    Which is EXACTLY why I just moved to using Vivaldi browser and StartPage as a search engine. Fuck these guys.

  • oh_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    10 hours ago

    AI is over hyped and doesn’t need to be shoved in our faces. Ugh.

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      6 hours ago

      It’s another tech bubble like the dot com bubble. But at this point, the AI bubble, the crypto bubble, and the capitalism bubble will all crash at the same time as the world economy falls apart and we end up in another global war. I guess the accelerationists that survive will get their wish and see what remains and if it’s the neofuedalist white supremacy utopia they dream of

  • hark@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    11 hours ago

    Stick to SEARCH, not making shit up (euphemistically called “hallucinating”).

  • MyOpinion@lemm.eeEnglish
    31·
    14 hours ago

    The future is coming and it sure looks like garbage. I have long since left Google behind.

    • Balder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      12 hours ago

      It’s been a long time I use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine for basic stuff (which let’s be honest, more than 80% is just a simple query to find a certain area of some website, like “Firefox download Windows”, “Discord site status”, “Microsoft office pricing” etc.). If I want to search something more related to my own language or recent events in my county, Google is a must, but that’s like 10% of all my search engine usage. I don’t really need Google to know about the other 90%.