Google Search could use AI Mode as default
Google could be swapping traditional search results for AI as its default setting.
Google could be swapping traditional search results for AI as its default setting.
The tech giant's current AI Mode uses both Gemini AI and real-time search time for direct answers, rather than the list of links people have grown used to.
Lead product manager Logan Kilpatrick has suggested on X that the AI version could soon be the norm.
A user on the social media platform said: "It must be the default. I know it's scary, but one more click means infinity.
"This is Google's Kodak moment. I hope you learned from history books."
Logan simply replied: "Soon :)"
As well as being a tab in Google Search, AI Mode has also been given its own dedicated homepage, which could be a precursor to the "default" move.
This could cause a major shift in how people find things out online, as well as websites relying on Google traffic.
AI Overviews - which can answer users' questions without sending them to another website - have varying degrees of accuracy, but there has already been some declines in readership for publishers as a result of the shift.
However, Google Search vice president Robby Stein has tried to clarify the situation and quash people's concerns about a change in focus.
He wrote on X: "Wouldn’t read too much into this. we’re focusing on making it easy to access AI Mode for those who want it."
