Google Search Is Evolving: AI-Powered Assistant Features Coming Soon

Google is preparing for a major shift in how users interact with Search, with AI playing a central role in its evolution. During Alphabet’s Q4 2024 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that Google is working on making Search function more like an AI assistant, expanding its capabilities beyond just returning links and snippets.
The transformation began with the introduction of AI Overviews in May 2024. However, its rollout faced criticism due to inaccurate and sometimes misleading responses. Now, Google is doubling down on AI-driven improvements, aiming to create a more dynamic and interactive search experience. Pichai emphasized that Search will soon be able to handle more complex queries that require ongoing engagement, rather than just providing instant answers.
As part of this AI-first approach, Google is exploring follow-up question capabilities, similar to Perplexity AI’s conversational search model. Additionally, new projects like "Project Mariner" and "Project Astra" are in development. Mariner focuses on AI agents that can navigate a browser, click buttons, and fill out forms autonomously. Astra, on the other hand, is a multimodal AI system designed to enhance Google’s vision for future AI assistants.
Another upcoming tool, "Gemini Deep Research", introduced last month, aims to automate in-depth research. It generates detailed reports complete with key findings, source links, and exportable content for Google Docs. This could significantly change how users conduct academic or professional research, potentially replacing advanced search techniques like Google Scholar queries.
While Google has not announced a specific launch timeline, Pichai hinted that users can expect new AI-driven Search experiences throughout 2025. As AI continues to reshape the search landscape, Google is positioning itself to stay ahead in the race for the next generation of intelligent search assistants.
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I have the “AI” response blocked with a special ublock script specifically targetting it.
They think people are stupid…
Google nuked search by image, they nuked cached mode, at least you can still search results with a custom date-span, and it “mostly works”.
I avoid Google, Google services (apart from YouTube videos redirected to embedded, channels accessed via Invidious and Piped instances (don’t count on them anymore for rendering YouTube videos, and Maps+Street View, via ‘Instant Street View’), 3rd-party connections (unless handled by the ‘LocalCDN’ extension), and so I avoid Google Search and use a dozen alternatives for Web, Images, Videos, News searches. Google Search now being AI-powered will certainly not be an incentive to use this bloated, tracking, redirected results search engine. IMO the best all-in-one search concept is that of meta-search engines such as a SearXNG instance. DDG remains my default search engine because in suits my basic needs, yet I use the ‘UnDuckButton’ userScript which allows transferring the search query to any of my eleven other search engines plus a few other ‘knowledge’ sites (Wikipedia, Brittanica, Larousse …). Complete search opportunities one-click accessible from within a ‘central’ search engine so to say which is DDG. I don’t use DDG’s Bangs because I don’t like searching a given website via another.
No need for Google, but is it worth emphasizing on that?
I could, should have mentioned a Google Search “feature” which is included in many other search engines and which I challenge anyone to prove it is not fundamentally stupid and participates only to bloated search results :
Search engines which allow images, videos, news searches together with the basic Web search all provide in a top navigation bar theses specific searches : why the heck do they add a sample of these specific searches with the results of Web search results?! Those specific searches are right on top, in the navigation toolbar! Insane.
‘Google does it, let’s do it as well’ : is that the credo, the mantra of some, many alternative search engines? Good Lord, Good Heavens, set yourself apart, have your identity, stop following Google schemes, concepts like good little children.
Google has become the most useless search engine and anything he said won’t help. Yandex remains the only good search engine left.