Jake Peterson is Lifehacker’s Tech Editor, and has been covering tech news and how-tos for nearly a decade. His team covers all things technology, including AI, smartphones, computers, game consoles, and subscriptions. May 20, 2026 Add as a preferred ...

Google's I/O 2026 keynote scrapped the search box that has anchored the web for 25 years. Bloggers, publishers and freelancers are sounding the alarm.

The modern internet was built around one behaviour: typing queries into Google Search. That model is now being rewritten by Google itself. At its latest I/O developer conference, the company unveiled what it described as the biggest overhaul of Search in 25 years,

Google called the new AI-powered Search box the biggest upgrade to Search in more than 25 years. In the era of agentic AI, this means that it’s about doing more than searching.

Google’s search business survived the chatbot boom — and now its AI tools and cloud services are accelerating the company’s growth.

Google unveils Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers in AI Mode, signaling how advertising may evolve inside conversational, AI-powered Search experiences.

Google says its new AI-powered experience will help people search more. But will it surface information that’s reliably true?

The company's sweeping AI overhaul of Search could reshape how billions of people find information—and impact the publishers and businesses who depend on them.