Google Search is a web search engine operated by Google (Alphabet), launched in 1997 and the most-visited website in the world. Since 2024 it has been gradually reshaped into an AI-driven product.
AI features
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries shown above the classic search results; they launched in May 2024 in the US and expanded to more than 100 countries and 40+ languages. AI Mode is a conversational, multi-step search experience powered by Gemini, using a query fan-out technique (parallel queries) and Deep Search, which produces extensive, fully cited reports.
Visual search is provided by Google Lens (object recognition, OCR, translation, shopping) and Circle to Search (an on-screen circling gesture on Android). AI Mode also offers agentic features (reservations, shopping) and personalization based on personal context such as Gmail data.
AI Overviews and AI Mode are powered by a custom version of Google's Gemini models.
