You knew it was coming: Google begins testing AI-only search results
arstechnica.com
AI Mode could be the future of Google, but it’s currently just an experiment.

Google has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning “to find things on the Internet.” Soon, Google might just tell you what’s on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won’t show you the 10 blue links at all—Gemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.

This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.

With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it’s only the start of Google’s plans for AI search.

Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It’s launching as an opt-in feature via Google’s Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far.

  • arcterus@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I feel like Kagi, after tuning, provides the best results at the moment (even including Google sometimes). You definitely need to tune it though since the default results are not that great. Agree about their CEO. TBH, at this point, I also wish they weren’t based in the US.

    It’s been a few years since I last tried Searx, but I remember the results being pretty bad. Has it gotten better?

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      28 minutes ago

      Searx just proxies other engines, so the results are the same as the upstream results.

      I’ve never really had a problem with results from any engine TBH.

      The main thing I’ve learned over the last few years with Searx is that some instances are terrible while others are great. Some are slow, and often get blocked and take days for the admin to get a new IP or whatever. Right now I’m using perennialte.ch and it’s been great. They also redirect results at reddit to an alternative frontend which is a nice touch.