📲 Google Just Changed How Search Works. Here Is What Is Different.
Plus: how to use the new conversational search, why your results may look unfamiliar, and what AI Mode actually does
Something has been quietly shifting every time you open Google. The results look a little different. There is sometimes a long paragraph at the top before you see any links. The search box itself behaves differently. If you have noticed any of this and wondered whether you were imagining it, you were not.
Last week, at its annual developer conference in California, Google announced what it called the biggest upgrade to its search engine in twenty-five years. The changes are already rolling out to users. They are driven entirely by artificial intelligence, and they affect something most of us do dozens of times a day without thinking about it.
This newsletter is not usually about breaking news. But this one is worth pausing for, because understanding what changed helps you use Google more effectively right now. And the changes turn out to be more useful than they might first appear.
Today you’ll learn:
Why Google results look different from what you were used to seeing
What the AI summary at the top of your results actually is, and whether to trust it
How to use conversational search, which lets you ask Google questions the way you would ask a person
How to search using a photo from your phone’s camera
What AI Mode is and when it is worth switching to it
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What changed and why
For most of its existence, Google worked on a simple principle: you type a word or two, and it shows you a list of links. That model served people well when most searches were simple. “Weather Amsterdam.” “Best Italian restaurant near me.” “Barack Obama birthday.”
What Google noticed is that people’s questions have been getting longer and more complicated. Searches containing eleven words or more have grown significantly in the past two years. Conversational queries, meaning questions phrased the way you would speak to another person, jumped from roughly five percent of all searches to twenty percent. People have been, without necessarily realizing it, starting to search the way they talk to AI assistants.
Google’s response is a fundamental redesign. The search box itself now expands to fit longer questions. The results page now often begins with an AI-generated summary rather than a list of links. And there is a new mode, called AI Mode, that turns Google into something closer to a conversation than a lookup tool.
Let’s try it by asking the same question to Google; here is the result:
Note that the result doesn’t start by giving links to articles or YouTube videos (they do follow further down)
The AI summary at the top of your results
If you have searched for anything complicated recently, you may have seen a shaded box at the very top of the page containing several paragraphs of text. This is Google’s AI-generated answer, assembled from multiple sources across the web.
It is useful for many questions, particularly ones with a clear factual answer. If you ask Google something like “what are the side effects of taking aspirin with blood pressure medication,” the AI summary pulls together information from medical sources and presents it in plain language, often saving you the step of clicking through several websites.
The links to original sources appear below or alongside the summary. It is worth clicking through to those sources for any question where accuracy genuinely matters, such as medical, legal, or financial questions. The summary is a starting point, not a final authority.
For simple searches, the old list of links still appears, often without any AI summary at all. Google applies the new format selectively, which is why results sometimes look familiar and sometimes look quite different from what you expect.
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How to search more effectively right now
The most immediately useful change is also the simplest: you can now type longer, more natural questions into Google and get better results than you would have a year ago.
Instead of typing “back pain remedy,” try typing “what can I do at home to relieve lower back pain without medication.” Instead of “flights cheap,” try “when is the cheapest time to book a flight from New York to London.” Google has been specifically optimized for this kind of question, and the results are noticeably better.
You do not need to turn anything on or change any settings. Just start typing the way you would speak.
Searching with a photo
One of the more practical new features works from your phone. You can now show Google something and ask it a question about what you are seeing.
Open the Google app on your iPhone or Android phone. Tap the camera icon inside the search bar. Point your camera at something, or upload a photo from your camera roll. Then type or speak your question. You could photograph a plant in your garden and ask what it is. You could take a picture of a rash and ask what might cause it. You could snap a photo of a restaurant menu in a foreign language and ask Google to explain the dishes.
Google calls this feature Lens, and it has been available for some time, but it has become significantly more capable with the recent updates. If you have never tried it, it is worth a few minutes of experimentation.
What AI Mode is
AI Mode is a newer way of using Google Search that focuses on longer, back-and-forth conversations rather than single queries. On desktop and in the Google app for iPhone and Android, it appears as an AI-powered tab or section within Search. Once you are in it, you can ask follow-up questions without starting from scratch, because Google remembers the context of your earlier questions.
Think of it as the difference between looking something up in an encyclopedia and asking a knowledgeable friend who can follow up on what you said. This makes it particularly useful for research, planning, or any situation where your question leads naturally to more questions. Planning a trip, researching a medical condition, comparing financial products.
Availability can vary by country and by whether you are signed into a Google account. Some advanced features, such as Deep Search, are currently limited to paying Google AI subscribers. For most readers, the standard AI Mode tab in Google Search is free to try.
Worth knowing
Google launched in 1998 with a single text box and a button that said “Google Search” and another that said “I’m Feeling Lucky.” For the first fifteen years of its existence, the basic interaction barely changed. You typed words, it returned links.
The shift began around 2015 when Google introduced direct answers at the top of search results for simple factual questions, the kind that shows a box with a direct answer when you search for a capital city or a celebrity’s age. That was the first sign that Google was moving from showing you where to find information to simply providing the information itself.
What happened at Google I/O 2026 last week was the largest single step in that direction. The company’s own data shows that AI Mode queries are, on average, triple the length of a regular search, which tells you something about how people are starting to use it. Longer questions suggest people are expecting real answers, not just a list of places to look.
Tech news
Google announced a Universal Cart that works across different retailers within its own services. Announced at Google I/O 2026, the Universal Cart lets you add items from multiple merchants into a single Google-managed cart while browsing through Google Search or the Gemini app, with YouTube and Gmail to follow later. It can track price changes, surface price history, and alert you when items are back in stock. The feature is rolling out first in the United States and will appear gradually in Google Shopping experiences over the coming months.
AI-generated social media accounts are becoming harder to identify. Industry surveys indicate that a clear majority of marketers either already use AI in their influencer campaigns or plan to do so, and many report increasing their reliance on AI-generated content creators over the past year. Accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers are now being run by entirely fictional AI characters with no real person behind them. When you see a social media account recommending a product, particularly a supplement, a financial product, or a beauty item, it is worth checking whether the account has a verifiable real identity before trusting the recommendation.
ChatGPT and Google are increasingly used together rather than as alternatives. Research based on clickstream data found that more than twenty percent of ChatGPT’s referral traffic flows straight to Google, suggesting that a significant share of sessions move from one to the other rather than replacing Google entirely. The emerging pattern is that people use ChatGPT to summarize and compare, then Google to find specific information or complete transactions. Knowing this may help you decide which tool to reach for first, depending on what you are trying to do.
App spotlight: Google app (iPhone/Android)
If you use Google on your phone via Safari or Chrome rather than the dedicated Google app, you are missing several of the new features described in this newsletter, including camera search and a more accessible version of AI Mode.
The Google app is free and available on both iPhone and Android. Once installed, it becomes the easiest way to access the expanded search box, Lens camera search, and AI Mode all from one place. On iPhone, you can also set it to open when you tap the search bar on your home screen if you prefer it to Siri.
Search for “Google” in the App Store or Google Play. It is free.
App spotlight: Perplexity (iPhone/Android)
Perplexity takes a different approach to the same problem Google is trying to solve. Where Google is adding AI features to a search engine, Perplexity was built from the beginning as an AI search tool. You ask a question in plain language, it searches the web in real time, and it returns a direct answer with clearly cited sources alongside each claim.
The source citations make it particularly trustworthy for readers who want to verify where the information comes from. Every statement in the answer links back to the original source, making it easy to check. It is especially useful for medical questions, news events, and anything where accuracy matters and you want to be able to follow the trail. I love this app and use it several times a day. I just used it this evening to tell what was still in my fridge and then asked to suggest a recipe.
Perplexity is free for basic use, with a paid tier for heavier users. Search for “Perplexity” in the App Store or Google Play, or visit perplexity.ai.
Quick fix
If the new AI summaries at the top of Google results are not what you want, there is a simple way to get back to the classic list of links. After you run any search, look at the row of filter tabs that appears just below the search bar. You will see options like Images, News, and Shopping. Look for a tab labeled “Web” and tap or click it. This removes the AI summary and shows only traditional text links, the way Google looked for most of its history.
The Web filter works on both desktop and mobile. On some phones, it may be hidden under a “More” option in that same row of tabs.
A note for readers who are thinking about the environmental impact of AI: switching to the Web filter changes what you see, but does not guarantee that Google runs less computation behind the scenes. If environmental impact matters to you, the most meaningful thing is simply to be thoughtful about how often you reach for AI-heavy tools, rather than expecting a single setting to solve it.
Meanwhile
Several readers have written in recently asking whether they should be using ChatGPT instead of Google. The honest answer is that they are useful for different things. Google remains better for finding specific websites, checking current news, looking up local businesses, and any search where you want to see the original source. ChatGPT and similar AI tools are better for drafting text, explaining complicated concepts, and working through a problem step by step. The most practical approach is to keep both available and reach for whichever fits what you are trying to do. This newsletter will cover when to use which tool in more depth in a future issue.
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"People have been, without necessarily realizing it, starting to search the way they talk to AI assistants."
This is fascinating. I've been using Brave and have been frustrated by a need for repeat clarification. Siri is on my computer and we engage in brief, accidental conversations. Me while reading: " Seriously?!" Siri: "Hmmm?" Me: "Sorry Siri, never mind." Siri: "Okay." So I'll give the new version of Google a test, but yes, I continue to be concerned about environmental impact. Thanks! 📱💻
Today’s Screen Skills was very helpful,especially the new info re: Google. I just installed Perplexity thanks to your recommendation! SSkills was all about research today, which I’m grateful for!Thank you😊