Google Overhauls Search Box for First Time in 25 Years
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- Google overhauled its search box for the first time in 25 years at I/O 2026, letting users ask longer queries, upload photos and videos, and use Gemini 3.5 Flash-powered agents to automate searches, per the NYT.
- The new search experience runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash, a new AI model Google unveiled at the conference, and also introduces video-generation capabilities as part of the redesign.
- TechCrunch's Sarah Perez declared the era of the "ten blue links" is officially over — a framing echoed by Adweek, Android Central, PYMNTS, VentureBeat, and PCMag, all calling this Google's biggest search change in 25 years.
- The Guardian reported Google simultaneously announced that "glasses are back," while The Verge noted Google is launching its own version of OpenClaw, both signal the search overhaul sits inside a much broader AI and hardware push.
- Inc broke from the celebratory pack, warning "Google's Ambitious AI Search Changes Are Risky" — a counterpoint largely absent from other coverage.
- DuckDuckGo joined the conversation on X, weighing in publicly on Google's redesign — a rare competitive voice in the coverage cluster.
Why it matters: This is Google's first fundamental search redesign in 25 years, and it shifts the front door of the web from a link list to AI agents and Gemini — a structural change with direct stakes for every publisher dependent on Google referral traffic. Inc's "risky" framing and TechCrunch's "ten blue links are over" line both underline that the SEO and traffic economics of the open web are about to be rewritten.
