Google has announced an expansion of the features of its search bar, the central element of the world's most visited website, through the use of AI, and added a feature that can show whether an image was created using AI. The tech giant will also try its hand again at creating high-tech glasses, more than a decade after the owners of the company's first glasses were dubbed "glassholes" and ridiculed. This was reported by The Guardian and Engadget, according to UNN.
Details
At Google's annual I/O software developer conference on Tuesday, Google executives announced that the search bar will accommodate longer and more specific queries than before—questions more similar to those people ask each other than to a specific search syntax. The changes will direct users directly to Google's chatbot. The search changes are powered by the company's new Gemini 3.5 AI model, announced the same day.
Executives said Gemini will make longer text predictions based on what users have already typed, compared to what is currently available. Daily Google searches may also produce more visual elements and suggestions for interacting with Google AI to create a calendar invite, a spreadsheet plan, or another action within the Google product family.
"Google Search is search using AI," said Elizabeth Reid, who oversees the product, calling the changes the most significant in the nearly 30-year history of Google Search. The updates will be rolled out Tuesday across all desktop and mobile versions of Google Search. A video highlighting the changes showed results that look more like visually enhanced versions of AI overviews—summarized answers in the form of bulleted lists that Google Search now produces—rather than a list of links. Users will still be able to choose the original version of search—a set of links—by clicking the "Web" tab.
Reid said the number of queries in Google Search reached a record high last month. Since the launch of the AI mode a year ago, in which a user chats with a Gemini-powered bot rather than clicking through a list of links, the number of queries to the interface specifically designed for chatbots has doubled every quarter. If a user adds photos, videos, or documents to the Chrome browser search bar, the search automatically switches to AI mode.
The goal of Google Gemini, according to Josh Woodward, who is developing the flagship AI, is to create a "universal assistant that is personalized, proactive, and persistent." The company announced that the Gemini app is used by 900 million people monthly, which is still less than ChatGPT's 900 million weekly users. Adding agents to Google's flagship search product, used by billions of people daily, marks the expansion of a niche type of AI beyond the realm of tech-savvy, business-oriented users into the broader consumer sphere.
AI Image Detection Feature
As Engadget notes, Google is also expanding its SynthID AI detection system, so features like Circle to Search and Lens will be able to identify images created and edited using AI.
AI Agents for Subscribers
For subscribers of the AI Pro and Ultra plans, the ability to create "information agents"—autonomous AI bots capable of conducting in-depth research and providing the user with summaries or action plans—will appear in search. A "generative UI" feature will allow for the creation of personalized visual elements and interactive elements, such as dashboards, based on user queries. A new agent feature, Gemini Spark, will be able to access information from Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google products to conduct research, shopping, and planning for future trips, meetings, or recurring tasks.
Smart Glasses
In collaboration with partners Samsung and eyewear manufacturers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, Google executives introduced "intelligent eyewear"—a line of sunglasses and regular glasses that will go on sale this fall. The glasses will respond to Gemini users' voice commands and take photos or videos using built-in cameras. Another tech giant, Meta, has been partnering with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, selling similar voice-controlled, camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta glasses since 2021.
In 2014, Google began selling Google Glass, another optical computer, for $1,500, which drew widespread ridicule and was discontinued the following year. In a sign of changing attitudes toward the issue, Meta views its augmented reality glasses as a major growth area for its future business, and Google is even working on a second model of smart glasses with a display in the lenses, dubbed Project Aura.
Other announcements at I/O included AI programming features for Gemini and cybersecurity-focused AI.
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