Google has just rolled out a significant change to its home page, adding an upload function directly to the main search bar, and this new feature automatically sends users straight into AI Mode results. This is a massive shift in how it handles visual searches and shows where the company is heading.
Historically, if you uploaded an image or a file to Google Search, the system would take you to the traditional results page, usually incorporating Google Lens features and standard image search results. Now, with this new upload button in place, the entire user flow skips the traditional path and dives immediately into the AI Mode experience.
This means the results you get are synthesized, conversational, and tailored by the AI, rather than being a list of web links or image matches. This change isn’t happening in a vacuum. Google is continuing its sustained push to move searchers away from the classic results page, including the popular blue links, and into its generative AI environments.
We’ve seen this strategy play out in several ways recently. Google has been nudging searchers from AI Overviews into AI Mode. It added a dedicated AI Mode tab that is always visible on the left side of the screen and has integrated AI Mode directly into the Chrome omnibox.
The biggest problem here is that this aggressive move seems to confirm what many of us suspected. Google has denied a plan to make AI Mode the default search experience, but it feels like every action the company takes points toward that goal.
The AI Mode experience is fundamentally different from a traditional Google search results page, and searchers are simply less likely to click through from a synthesized AI answer than they are from a standard list of links. Also, the AI just isn’t as reliable, largely because it relies on Reddit and other opinion-based sources.
This increased reliance on AI tools comes even as the technology causes some headaches. The AI Overviews, which are the conversational answers that appear right at the top of the search results page, have produced many factual errors since the broader rollout. This has forced Google to scramble to remove false information, adjust algorithms, and make sure sources are properly attributed.
Since there is no official toggle to shut these AI Overviews off entirely, you just have to deal with having your images sent straight to the AI mode. However, while there is no way to avoid this change, you can still avoid AI in your searches.
Fortunately, there are a few repeatable tricks that let you bring back the classic search experience, even if Google is trying to hide it. One simple method that seems to break the AI algorithm is to use the negative operator. If you add a modifier like ‘-AI’ or even just random characters like ‘-efewg’ to the end of your search query, it often strips the AI Overview from the results page.
It is clear that Google is making AI Mode and its generative features the primary destination for more and more interactions, including the simple act of uploading a file. If you prefer the old way of doing things, you may have to look for another search engine.
Source: Search Engine Land