Google launched an experimental version of its search engine on Wednesday that completely eliminates its classic 10 blue links in favour of an AI-generated summary.

The new feature, available to subscribers of Google One AI Premium, can be accessed via the results page for any search query by clicking on a tab labelled “AI Mode” to the side of existing options like Images and Maps.

“We’ve heard from power users that they want AI responses for even more of their searches,” Robby Stein, a vice president of product, said in a blog post.

Google One AI Premium is a US$19.99/month (R430/month in South Africa) plan that provides extra cloud storage and special access to some AI features.

Google currently displays AI Overviews, summaries that are increasingly appearing atop the traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages, for users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May.

With AI Mode, users see a more comprehensive AI summary with hyperlinks to cited webpages. The 10 blue links have been replaced by a search bar for asking follow-up questions.

Google said AI Mode is being powered by a custom version of its Gemini 2.0 model with reasoning capabilities that make it better equipped to handle complex queries.

Biggest challenge

Parent Alphabet’s $350-billion in 2024 revenue was primarily driven by search-related advertising. But it is facing the biggest challenge to its core business in years from AI challengers led by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which added search functions to ChatGPT last October.

Google has made integrating AI into search its biggest bet, investment chief Ruth Porat said at the Reuters Next conference in December.

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In February, education-technology company Chegg sued Google, accusing the previews of eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers’ ability to compete. — Kenrick Cai, (c) 2025 Reuters

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