I tried Google’s AI mode, and now it’s my favorite search tool

I’m not going to lie-I hesitated to embrace the AI-driven overhaul of Google’s search tool. Sure, I have come across a useful AI overview here and there, but I have also received terrible advice, such as adding toxic glue to pizza cheese to make it stretcher. And when it is the level of bad information you can get from an AI model, you probably won’t give it too many chances to get the answer right.

However, I’m also a bit of a glutton for punishment – I mean, I used Rabbit’s R1 more than once in a few months after it was launched. So when Google announced a new AI -Mode Should come to the search laboratory, I signed up on the waiting list. I figured it couldn’t be any worse than Google’s misfilled AI overviews, and if I was lucky, it could be an AI-driven feature I actually use. I guess today is my lucky day, and here’s the reason.

Before we discuss what is good with Google’s AI mode and what is not, I should explain the feature. At this time, Google has so many AI-driven tools that it can be difficult to distinguish them from each other. For me, but AI mode strikes as the top search function of the gang. There are equal parts AI overview and Gemini Chatbot, but not exactly anyone. It runs on a search-specific version of Google’s Gemini 2.0 model, which means you can ask in-depth, multi-stage questions and come back long, detailed answers containing all the information in Google’s search index.

On the AI ​​overview page, AI mode is pretty much just that -a very detailed summary to answer your question. It looks and feels like Google’s AI overview interface, and boils the search down into several bullet points drawn from related sources around the Internet. Unlike a standard AI overview, which tends to create your answer by using quotes and paraphrases from different sources, AI mode generates the summary on its own, and switches on and on from the sources on which the information is based.

From a Gemini Chatbot perspective, AI mode makes it easy to ask questions and add follow-up to your call without losing the original context. Unlike personality -filled Gemini liveWho will talk you through your entire call is Google’s AI mode just a vessel for information – skipping the fun voices to present a lot of information at once. I think I prefer the quiet approach, as I am not sure that I will ever come to the end of an AI mode result at the speed that it generates information.

However, there are a few braces to jump through before you can try Google’s AI mode. At the moment it exists as a search laboratory experiment (Sign up here), which means there is a waiting list to access. You also need to subscribe to Google One Ai Premium (basically you have to pay for Gemini advanced) To even put your name on the list, which costs a cool $ 20 per month. Google One Ai Premium comes with several other benefits, such as access to Notebooklm Plus, 2TB of Google a storageAnd access to the Gemini in your Google Workspace programs, so you may find that the monthly fee is worth it even if you have to wait a while for access to AI mode.

Now that you have a basic idea of ​​how Google’s powerful new search tools work, let’s dig in whether it’s something good or not. I would easily admit that I hoped it would not be – I am a writer who eventually contributes to Google’s search index whether I want to or not, and so that the AI ​​mode will start generating answers completely on your own unless a link back to where the information came from not sitting properly with me. Do I acknowledge that it is probably still useful for people who do not want to spend bits of their day researching? Yes, but I don’t have to like it.

To give Google’s new search tool a proper test, I decided to use AI mode to find information completely outside my area of ​​expertise. I have a fresh seven-to-seven football season that begins in just a few weeks, and it feels like the right time to start researching tactics. I see a lot of the Premier League and Nwsl football Throughout the year, but there is a many other animal to ask up and down a field that is a third the size of a high school football field (American football, that is).

So I opened the Google app on the Pixel 9 Pro, turned over to AI mode-it is found in its own tab and printed “How does the small-sided football tactics separate from 11-to-11 and what formations work best?” In just a few seconds, Google had drawn information from 27 websites (AI mode tells you how many websites it uses) and divided my answer into two sections – one for the tactical differences and one that formations should use, as well as ways to settle on a formation. If I was a youth football coach who mourned my depth, this would probably have saved me from several angry parents -e post messages. Instead, I’m just here to avoid looking stupid while shouting the instructions for my friends.

Given, the results of AI mode were not perfect, as the long, detailed explanation defaulted on five-to-five formations instead of the seven-to-seven setup as my team needs, but it’s as much my fault as it is Google. Fortunately, because AI mode feels more like a chatbot than a single Google search, I managed to tailor my follow-up question for the correct number of players, with Google drawing from 34 more sources for both helping me to understand 7V7 ball and how I can choose between a few basic formations, depending on whether my crew will be more or more. AI mode also gave me tips on developing effective workouts for my team, which would be perfect if I didn’t have to coordinate the schedules for more than one dozen adult adults.

I don’t know how long it would have taken to do all that survey by hand, but I can say one thing – it hadn’t been a single Google search. I would probably have gone to one website for the tactical differences, another for the formations and a third for ways to practice. Instead, La AI mode put everything I needed in one place, boiled it down into bullet points and gave me a useful link or two where it thought I might want to learn more. As a writer, I hate it, but as a Wannabe football coach with a busy schedule, AI mode is excellent.