Google just did something it has not done since the early 2000s. It redesigned the search box.
The company announced at I/O today that its search box will now expand as you type, accept images, files and video alongside text, and offer AI-powered suggestions that go beyond autocomplete. Google's Liz Reid, VP and head of Search, called it the biggest upgrade to the search box in over 25 years.
The timing is not accidental. AI Mode, the conversational layer Google added to Search last year, has passed one billion monthly users. Queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch. Google is now making Gemini 3.5 Flash, its newest model, the default in AI Mode for all users worldwide.
The search box was the last sacred object
Google has changed almost everything about its results page over the past decade, from knowledge panels to featured snippets to AI Overviews. The search box itself stayed the same: a white rectangle, a blinking cursor, a string of keywords. Redesigning it is an admission that the way people search has changed. Queries are getting longer, more conversational, more specific. A box designed for three-word keyword strings cannot handle a paragraph-length question with an attached photo.
The new box is also a funnel. Type a query and you now get shortcuts to AI Mode, voice search and Google Lens at the bottom. Follow-up questions from AI Overviews flow into a full AI Mode conversation. Google wants every search to become a dialogue.
Agents are coming to Search
The bigger announcement is agents. Google is building what it calls information agents, background monitors that track topics and alert you when something changes. Agentic booking will let Search handle restaurant and hotel reservations on your behalf. Both are coming this summer.
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Search will also generate custom dashboards and interactive tools in response to queries, built in real time using Google's Antigravity platform. Reid compared these to mini apps for specific tasks.
The risk for Google is the same risk it has faced since ChatGPT launched: every AI feature it adds to Search takes users further from the ad-supported links that generate its revenue. One billion AI Mode users is a success metric and a business model problem at the same time.
