Google search updates: Company is making its biggest change to the search bar in years

Summary

Google unveiled its biggest search engine overhaul in years with AI-powered features like search agents that can scan the web.
The company also announced a Spark agent for its Gemini app that can handle recurring background tasks.
The changes could help Google’s search engine further compete with AI apps from OpenAI and Anthropic.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

To get ahead in the new internet age, Google wants to help you google less.

The company on Tuesday revealed a flurry of AI-powered features for its search engine, AI assistant Gemini and other services. It’s part of Google’s latest effort to revamp its decades-old business model to fit the era of artificial intelligence.

Among those updates is a new version of the search bar that can crawl the web on a user’s behalf and a new mode in Gemini that can work autonomously over periods of time.

The changes bring Google’s search engine closer to the likes of its biggest competitors today: Anthropic and OpenAI, whose sophisticated AI models have taken over some of the duties of search tools and web browsers.

Google for years has been moving away from delivering a list of blue links in response to search queries. But the refreshed search engine, which runs on the company’s new Gemini 3.5 Flash model, represents what may be its biggest shift yet toward AI and away from traditional search.

The new search field expands to accommodate longer queries that are more conversational, aligning with the way one might type or talk into Gemini or ChatGPT.

Users will be…

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