Google finally figured out how to make search results less annoying
just rolled out
Web Guide
, a fresh AI experiment that's completely rethinking how we navigate search results. Instead of the familiar wall of blue links, this new feature uses a custom version of
Gemini AI
to organise your search results into neat, helpful categories, like having a smart assistant sort through the internet chaos for you.
Web Guide is available as an experimental feature for users who have opted into the
Search Labs program
. Currently tucked away in the Web tab, it replaces the traditional list format with AI-curated sections that group related content together, each with generated summaries and relevant links.
How Web Guide differs from Google's existing AI Mode
While Google's AI Mode takes you into full conversation territory, complete with back-and-forth chatting and detailed AI responses, Web Guide keeps things closer to traditional search while adding smart organization. AI Mode essentially replaces your search results with a chatbot experience, whereas Web Guide still shows you actual website links, just arranged in a more thoughtful way.
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by Taboola
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So, when you search for something like "how to solo travel in Japan," Web Guide creates organised sections like "Comprehensive Guides for Solo Travel in Japan" and "Personal Experiences and Tips from Solo Travelers." Instead of simply giving you a paragraph of how you can solo travel.
Both features use the same "query fan-out" technique, where Gemini runs multiple related searches simultaneously to cast a wider net. But Web Guide strikes a middle ground between the familiar blue links experience and the more radical AI Mode approach. You get AI-generated summaries and categories without completely abandoning the straightforward link-clicking experience most people know and love. There's even a toggle to switch back to regular results if the AI organization isn't hitting the mark.
The AI-generated headings group similar content together, making it easier to find exactly what you're looking for without endless scrolling through unrelated results.
So now what this means for the future of search
So far, with AI Overviews and AI Mode, the prevailing worry is that AI in
Google Search
is going to kill internet search as we know it, essentially replacing those familiar blue links with algorithm-generated responses that keep you glued to Google's page, what some call the 'death of the open web.' But Web Guide works a little differently. Instead of giving you purely AI-generated responses, Web Guide lays out actual website links with the help of AI, encouraging exploration of the broader web, just with better organization and context.
Whether this actually addresses concerns about AI killing
traditional web traffic
remains to be seen. Google's already hinting that Web Guide won't stay confined to the Web tab forever, the company plans to gradually roll these AI-organized results into other parts of Search, including the main "All" tab that most people use by default.
That could mean we're looking at a fundamental shift in how search results get presented, moving away from the simple chronological list toward more intelligent categorisation. For now though, Web Guide remains an opt-in experiment, giving Google time to see if people actually prefer organised chaos over the regular kind before potentially rolling it out to millions of daily searches.
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