"The Google search we knew is over."
Google has revamped its search function for the first time in 25 years. It combined artificial intelligence (AI) with the search box, the first entry point to search, and user reviews are mixed. Some users welcome that Google's search has turned conversational like an AI chat window, while others criticize that Google has completely lost its core search function.
According to major foreign media on the 4th and posts on online communities such as Reddit, there have been a series of cases in which, when users type a word into Google's recently AI-infused search box, it gives absurd answers or summarizes information unrelated to the search intent and puts it front and center.
For example, when you searched for the English word "Stop," in the past, one line with the dictionary definition appeared along with website L.I.N.C to the U.S. Merriam-Webster Dictionary or the U.K. Cambridge Dictionary at the top. Now, however, typing the same word brings an AI-generated reply at the top that says, "Got it, I'll stop here (Halted). Call me again when you need me." It interpreted the query as a "prompt" and, literally, "stopped" search activities such as delivering and summarizing information.
Users who experienced similar problems are flooding online communities like Reddit and social media X with criticism. Reactions range from "AI summaries make even simple tasks like looking up a word's dictionary meaning more complicated" and "It plausibly summarizes inaccurate answers," to the view that it deprives users who do not want to use AI of their choice. Chronic AI hallucinations are also appearing, such as answering "two" to the question, "How many P's are in the word 'Google'?" and failing to grasp basic spelling.
On May 19 (local time), at its annual developer conference "I/O 2026," Google unveiled a newly revamped "intelligent search box." As Google's dominance in search faced a challenge from the rise of AI-based search like ChatGPT, it redesigned the traditional search box into a conversational AI chat window. Liz Reid, Google's vice president and head of Search, called it "the biggest change since the search box first appeared 25 years ago."
This move is seen as a response to the "Zero-click" trend, in which users obtain information solely from answers provided by AI chatbots without visiting separate websites or apps. The revamped search box is designed to handle long and complex questions based on Google's cutting-edge AI model "Gemini 3.5 Flash," and it enables searches that use not only text but also images, files, and video in various formats.
Foreign media such as TechCrunch said Google's revamp of the search box has "officially closed the era of 'ten blue links.'" Until now, when you entered a query into Google, it listed website and article L.I.N.C containing relevant information. Now, with Google's "AI Overview," which summarizes answers at the top of results, the blue links have been pushed down.
There are also concerns that Google's "AI Overview" and the in-depth search feature "AI mode," which allows follow-up questions within AI Overview, are becoming personalized for each user, reducing the objectivity and diversity of answers. A recent analysis by researchers at the search marketing corporations iPullRank of about 2,000 Google "AI mode" answers found that brands mentioned in a user's Gmail, Google Photos, and other personal account appeared up to 2.8 times more often than brands that were not.
Some warn that Google could devolve from a traditional "search engine" into a so-called "answer engine" that delivers the responses users want in a tailored way. They say the exploratory function of discovering new and useful information that users did not expect during the search process is disappearing, while confirmation bias that repeatedly shows already preferred information and products is only getting stronger.
Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive officer (CEO), acknowledged on a recent podcast appearance that "for certain queries or topics, AI Overview can be more opinionated than necessary," while adding that "there is room for improvement."