Google homepage search box rolling out AI Mode button

Google may be rolling out the AI Mode button on the Google home page, on the right side of the search box. This is a feature that Google has been testing for about two months now, but now others and I are more widely seeing the AI Mode button on the Google homepage.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the new AI Mode button – I was able to replicate this on Chrome for Mac signed in and out, and Safari signed in; as well as on Chrome for PC signed in and out and Microsoft Edge signed in and out:

There is actually this animation for the circle around the AI Mode button, here is a GIF of it in action:

What it looked like before. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like without the AI Mode button – which I was able to see signed out on Safari:

What is AI Mode. AI Mode is a new tab within Google Search that brings you into a more AI-like interface. Google said AI Mode “is particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or comparisons are needed.” AI Mode lets you explore a topic and get comprehensive AI-based answers without you needing to do those comparisons and analyses yourself. We saw rumors of this news and it is finally officially here, for some of you.

AI Mode uses a “query fan-out” technique that issues multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources and then brings those results together to provide a response. Google said using this query fan-out method provides searchers with a “more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google.”

AI Mode supports searching with text, voice, and images through its multimodal capabilities. Plus, AI Mode offers the conversational follow-up questions like you’ve seen in AI Overviews and Gemini.

As you know, Google fully rolled out access to AI Mode in the US and more recently in India.

Tracking AI Mode. You won’t be able to easily track AI Mode queries and data in Search Console, despite that data being logged in Search Console. Google lumps it all together with normal search, despite it being a separate tab within Google.com.

Now that AI Mode is outside of Search Labs in India, you will see this data in Search Console, but it will just make it all super messy.

Why we care. Google is now pushing AI Mode access directly on its most sacred real estate, the Google.com home page. This should lead to more searchers trying out AI Mode and does signal that AI Mode is indeed the future of Google Search.

Keep in mind, it is super hard to track AI Mode as a publisher and site owner, but it is something you should stay on top of.