3 ways Google has tried to inject AI into how you search

Google’s AI has reinvented the search results page… again. When Google first launched in 1998, its magic lay in simplicity: type a query, get ten blue links. But that familiar list has been under siege lately from Google itself. With generative AI on the rise, Google has been repeatedly reshaping how information is displayed, discovered, and digested on its search engine. In 2025, that transformation continues, with Web Guide as the latest experiment.

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Here are three major ways Google has tried to embed artificial intelligence into your search journey over the past year.

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Also read: How your Google Search is changing with AI, as Search Generative Experience comes to India

AI overviews: Summarising at a single glance

This was Google’s first mainstream step into generative AI for Search and arguably the most controversial.

Launched widely in 2024, AI Overviews give users an instant summary of their search topic, complete with citations from various web sources. Instead of combing through links, users are offered a few paragraphs of text summarised by a Gemini model. Think of it as a built-in research assistant – quick, readable, and hyper-efficient.

But the feature has faced mixed reactions. While AI Overviews are useful for quick answers, critics argue they often skim over nuance or, worse, make confident errors. Google had to issue updates to limit summaries on sensitive or speculative topics (like health or finance), especially after headlines mocked the AI for suggesting people eat rocks or glue cheese to pizza.

Still, the intent is clear: Google no longer wants to just show you the web, it wants to interpret it for you.

Search Generative Experience (SGE)

SGE, first rolled out in Search Labs, was Google’s answer to ChatGPT-style interaction, but within the search ecosystem.

With SGE, instead of static responses, users are invited into a more interactive, multi-turn experience. You ask a question; the AI answers. But then, instead of clicking back to edit the query, you can follow up naturally: “What about in India?” or “Can you compare that with alternatives?” It’s a chat-like interface layered over traditional search.

Also read: Google Search gets a major upgrade with new Web Guide AI: Here’s how it works

SGE also offered suggestions for next steps, related searches, visual aids, even product comparisons, with everything constantly updating in real time.

However, the project was also slow-moving and sometimes overwhelming for everyday users, who found the AI interface less intuitive than a familiar search bar. While not scrapped, SGE is gradually being folded into smaller features like AI Mode and Web Guide, rather than remaining a standalone experience.

Web Guide: Curated exploration, not just search

Unveiled in July 2025, Web Guide may be Google’s most elegant AI feature yet. Unlike AI Overviews or SGE, this feature doesn’t attempt to summarise the web for you, it simply helps you explore it smarter.

Web Guide reorganises your search results into thematic clusters. So instead of getting one long list of links, you might see your results sorted into labeled boxes: “Trip Planning,” “Weather Tips,” “Safety Concerns,” and “Local Experiences,” for example, if you searched for “traveling solo in Japan.” Each cluster comes with AI-generated context and a curated set of links pulled via Gemini’s “query fan-out” method, which essentially spins off sub-queries behind the scenes.

It’s a less intrusive use of AI, and arguably more useful. Rather than replacing content with summaries, it reshapes how you access it – a potential game-changer for research-heavy topics or ambiguous questions.

Currently, it’s an opt-in experiment via Search Labs and limited to the U.S., but it signals where Google may be headed next: a search page that thinks like a mind map, not a filing cabinet.

The future of search

Across these three experiments, a pattern emerges. Google is moving from “indexing the web” to interpreting the web. Whether it’s summarising content (AI Overviews), chatting through it (SGE), or clustering it (Web Guide), the company’s AI efforts aim to reduce friction, even if it comes at the cost of changing how we interact with information altogether.

The traditional search engine is no longer just a portal, it’s becoming a filter, a curator, and in some cases, an author. Whether users embrace this shift or push back depends on one big question: Do you want to find answers or have them found for you?

Also read: Google starts testing AI mode in Search with real-time voice chat and custom assistants

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Vyom Ramani

A journalist with a soft spot for tech, games, and things that go beep. While waiting for a delayed metro or rebooting his brain, you’ll find him solving Rubik’s Cubes, bingeing F1, or hunting for the next great snack. View Full Profile