By Sreya Deb
A simple search on any browser throws up millions of options. But a user is now presented with options even before hitting the search button on Google. Users in India now have multiple ways in which they can use Google or ask the search engine a query. With Google’s newly launched AI mode in India on June 24, typing into a search bar has become outdated. A user can enter a voice prompt, or even upload pictures for Google to throw up hits and AI generated summaries for. Web searches are being made easier or more user-friendly across the board. Currently AI mode is available only in the US and India and only in English.
Google has also been releasing ads to encourage users to make use of the AI mode, through Google doodles, share options and other advertising tactics. Having been recently launched, the AI mode icon is not available for Indian users on the home page. Instead, the user will have to click on the Search Labs icon (beaker) on the home page, which will lead them to ‘join the AI Mode experiment’ on Google.
The AI mode feature is powered by Gemini 2.5, an upgraded version of Google’s core AI model. The technology distills the web’s information into concise, useful responses, often with handy links for further exploration. In a Google blog post, vice president, product management, Search Labs, Hema Budaraju writes: “AI Mode is our most powerful AI search, with more advanced reasoning and multimodality, and the ability to go deeper through follow-up questions and helpful links to the web.” Budaraju’s post also mentioned that Google surveys have shown that voice and visual prompts and searches are very popular in India. In fact, more people in India use Google Lens monthly than any other country worldwide.
After the success of the AI Overviews feature, first in the US and India (Google’s biggest markets) and then 200 more countries driving 1.5 billion users every month, “it’s (AI Mode) already driving a more than 10% increase in usage for the types of queries where they appear…AI Mode expands what AI Overviews can do with more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities,” says Budaraju in her post.
Given that the AI Mode is still a very new feature on Google search, the company has on their website said that wherever the AI technology is lacking or unable to curate a response, Google will display a list of links and resources as usual. This is why the feature has only been released as an experiment on Search Labs, so that Google can continue to improve and improve it based on feedback from initial users.
The New Google AI mode also has a Deep Search feature, which acts essentially like a research assistant. Deep Search can perform extensive searches and extensive analysis to craft a detailed response. To explain how Deep Search can help researchers, Google has employed the analogy that a regular Google search would be the equivalent of finding a few books in the library, whereas the Deep Search feature is like having a scientist read the books and present the key findings in a comprehensive report. AI Mode can also crunch numbers and make spreadsheets or graphs for complex data sets.
Similar to the integration of AI in our search engines, the evolution of private browsing on web browsers is also worth noting over the decades. In the early 2000s, the web browsers like Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox had all introduced their privacy modes on their browsers. Safari private browsing, for example, was launched in 2005, with several updates to the recent versions — the first version where private browsing was featured in iOS was in version 2.0, with now version 17.5 released in 2024, having added features like locking a particular private tab, etc. Google Chrome and Firefox also have their own incognito mode and private browsing mode, respectively.
iOS also introduced iCloud Private Relay in 2021, which is available for iCloud subscribers, and offers a virtual private network-like (VPN-like) security for the user, albeit lacking a ‘no-logs’ policy, like other popular VPNs namely NordVPN or Private Access Internet.
For Android users, however, free or paid VPNs remain the only avenues to ensure private browsing. VPNs like NordVPN or Private Access Internet are popular among Google Chrome users. Such VPNs typically have a ‘no-logs’ policy — considered a non-negotiable when surfing for reliable VPNs to use. The no-logs policy ensures that the browser will not keep a record of your data while using it, which means that they do not have the power to hand it over to third parties either.
It remains to be seen when Google will release AI Mode worldwide, and how US and India users continue to respond to this new feature on the highest used search engine.
