Google appears to test Search without AI after market drop

Not everyone sees the change

The effect is hard to reproduce. Our own attempt to repeat the test across several devices, platforms and browsers produced AI elements every time. That suggests the experiment is limited, most likely to a small group of users in the United States.

Why advertising is at stake

Ads in search results are among the most important revenue sources for the Mountain View company. AI Mode and AI Overviews work against that model: they reduce the need to scroll through result pages and encourage users to talk directly to a chatbot built on Gemini models.

According to the report, Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler attributed the recent losses to the low revenue AI Mode generates. Google's market capitalization fell by almost 500 billion dollars in a single day, and the company is now looking for ways to contain the situation.

For several years Google has put AI at the center of Search, showing an AI overview above results for many queries. Testing a version without it would let the company measure directly how the absence of AI affects ad income. Google has not announced any change to its AI strategy in Search, and the experiment so far appears to be only a limited trial.