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.

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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    3 hours ago

    Been using Ecosia for months now. DuckDuckGo and Startpage before that. I’m pretty happy with Ecosia search results, can’t complain.

  • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
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    4 hours ago

    Ok, but why should I go to Google for ai answers when I can get the same from openai, other models or even local installations without all the ads?

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Unfortunately this isn’t about you, but the 90% of people who don’t understand what AI is at all and don’t give a shit where the responses come from as long as “scorpio dream meaning high school teacher truck” and “can you gregnant with cousin?” Give them answers they like

      /s to an extent, but here we are

  • Pondis@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Which is EXACTLY why I just moved to using Vivaldi browser and StartPage as a search engine. Fuck these guys.

  • oh_@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    AI is over hyped and doesn’t need to be shoved in our faces. Ugh.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      It’s another tech bubble like the dot com bubble. But at this point, the AI bubble, the crypto bubble, and the capitalism bubble will all crash at the same time as the world economy falls apart and we end up in another global war. I guess the accelerationists that survive will get their wish and see what remains and if it’s the neofuedalist white supremacy utopia they dream of

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      I was with kagi for a year.

      It was fine.

      Their CEO is an asshole though. There was that thing where he went a bit nutty over some mild criticism. I don’t remember the details.

      Anyhoo. Searx is nice for the moment.

    • mint_tamas@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      The weirdest thing about switching to kagi was learning that the first few results have a good chance of being relevant. I got so used to scrolling down after a search. It was just weird to have the useful results on top. Similarly, learning that search syntax is actually meaningful and respected by the search engine (for the majority of cases).

    • TheGoddessAnoia@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      I’m interested, but a bit reluctant. I find DuckDuckGo quite adequate for most things, except shopping online, something that I have to rely on for certain categories of items. How is Kagi on shopping?

  • hark@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Stick to SEARCH, not making shit up (euphemistically called “hallucinating”).

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Microsoft doesn’t want to end up like Google. Fuck that company! One way you can tell is on outlook…which I use with a proper 10’ pole on my work computer only. Fuck no, never at home ever ever… Have you ever received an email on outlook and just saw the title or maybe you read halfway through and got interrupted?.. Where the fuck is it now? Its gone! Sure you could go email by email and try to be your own search engine. But its no use, whatever Tim was talking about with the over pressured valve at the Central boiler, blah blah you should let people know to exit the blah blah, otherwise 3rd degree bur…yeah that shit’s gone. Might as well write your own email to finish the story. See, Microsoft doesn’t want to be like Google at all. On my 14.9992G full gmail, I was always able to go find out what Amazon offer I got 8 years ago. Look 404! Yeah that’s it! 404! With Gemini spying on my every move that’s gotta stop. It’s gonna try to learn my porn habits. I’m gonna go search for all the wrong porn on purpose.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    The future is coming and it sure looks like garbage. I have long since left Google behind.

    • Balder@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      It’s been a long time I use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine for basic stuff (which let’s be honest, more than 80% is just a simple query to find a certain area of some website, like “Firefox download Windows”, “Discord site status”, “Microsoft office pricing” etc.). If I want to search something more related to my own language or recent events in my county, Google is a must, but that’s like 10% of all my search engine usage. I don’t really need Google to know about the other 90%.

  • Xanza@lemm.ee
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    11 hours ago

    I noticed today that UDM mode for Google is displaying sponsored results now, too…

  • octopus_ink@slrpnk.net
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    18 hours ago

    Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

    Can we have one thing that is just doing ok?

    Government - fucked.

    Education - fucked.

    Healthcare - fucked.

    Environment - fucked.

    Societal and Social Cohesion - fucked.

    Wealth Inequality - fucked.

    Personal Technological Autonomy - fucked, and under continuous attack.

    Technological Enshittification - Running like gangbusters. So really - fucked.

    Damn, someone give me some kind of ladder to climb out of this pit of despair.

      • mhague@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        That’s weird – we water our soil with nutrients like “there’s no point in voting”, “they’re all out to get us”, “politicians are shit”, “nothing changes”, “governments are bad”.

        I wonder why people haven’t been motivated to fight. Whenever they express faith in our leaders, or institutions, or have any positivity, we’re quick to shut them down. But still.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Every civilization rises and falls. We’re on the down slope ATM. Sorry. The 80s and 90s were pretty nice in America!

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        They also flow from corruption (regulatory capture/failure to enforce anti-trust and other consumer-protection law). It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Nintendo, when chasing developers of emulators and modders, uses regulatory mechanisms. IP is such a mechanism initially. Intended to protect the little guy from big bad corporations.

          It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

          It’s both of course. Only time flows in one direction and never the other.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

      Yes. There are many texts written on this since start of writing, some are written down from what was carried in word before that since start of speaking.

    • Singletona082@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      The ladder has been privatized.

      You get the greased pole.

      I know it isn’t much, but services like mastodon, lemmy, kbin, friendica, Peertube, etc have shown me there is connected pushback.

      Tilde communities have given me something smaller scale to focus on.

      https://tildeverse.org/

    • slumberlust@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Problems exist, but there’s never been a safer time to be a homosapien on Earth. A book called Abundance helped me gain a little perspective in these gloomy days.