Google is testing a feature in Chrome that could redirect address bar search queries directly to its AI Mode — bypassing the traditional Google Search Results page entirely.
Android Police spotted references to the behavior inside Chrome’s source code, suggesting Google is at least evaluating the change internally.
AI Mode is Google’s conversational search experience — a chat-style interface that generates summarized answers rather than returning a ranked list of links.
What the Change Would Mean
For most users, typing a query into Chrome’s address bar, known as the omnibox, has always fired a standard Google Search results page.
Under the proposed change, that same query could land users inside AI Mode instead, cutting out the traditional ten-blue-links format that has defined web search for decades.
Google has not confirmed the feature publicly, and no official rollout date exists.
Still, the presence of the code signals the company is actively exploring how aggressively it can push Users Toward AI-generated answers.
A Broader Shift at Google
The potential change fits a pattern Google has pursued since launching AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that now appear at the top of many standard search results pages.
Google's own data, disclosed in company filings, shows Search remains the dominant revenue driver for Alphabet, generating the bulk of its advertising income.
That dependence makes the pace of any shift toward AI Mode commercially sensitive: AI-generated answers currently show fewer ads than traditional results pages.
Even so, Google has signaled it views AI-native search as its long-term direction, with CEO Sundar Pichai emphasizing AI integration across products in recent earnings calls.
Meanwhile, rivals including Microsoft, through its Copilot-integrated Bing, and a range of AI-native search tools such as Perplexity have pressed Google to move faster or risk ceding ground.
How Chrome Shapes Search Behavior
Chrome’s role in this equation is significant. The browser commands roughly 65 percent of the global browser market, according to StatCounter, giving Google substantial leverage over where search traffic flows.
By adjusting default behavior inside Chrome’s omnibox, Google can shift enormous volumes of queries to any destination it chooses — without requiring users to change any settings themselves.
That dynamic has drawn antitrust scrutiny before. A U.S. federal judge ruled in August 2024 that Google illegally maintained its search monopoly in part through default placement deals, including agreements that made Google the default search engine across browsers and devices.
The Justice Department is currently pursuing remedies in that case, some of which touch directly on Google’s Control Over search defaults.
Any move to steer Chrome users toward AI Mode rather than traditional Search could attract fresh regulatory attention, particularly given the ongoing proceedings.
