Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) changes the order of a search: an AI-generated answer can appear before the familiar list of links. The interface also invites follow-up questions, turning some searches into conversations. That shift could affect how users discover websites, products and local businesses.
Answers arrive before the link list
Announced at Google I/O, SGE generates a response to a query and places the traditional links afterward. For a question such as “How do I solve the Rubik's Cube?”, the system can produce a longer answer, suggest follow-up questions and show links to related webpages.
Some answers appear automatically; others require the user to press a button, and some queries may not produce an AI response at all. This variation suggests Google is still testing how and when generative answers should appear in search.
The responses resemble Featured Snippets, but they are longer and can connect users to several related pages. Featured Snippets still appear below the AI answers in the version described. If the new responses work well, the article says, those snippets could become redundant.
Search can continue as a conversation
Choosing a suggested follow-up opens a chat interface where users can continue asking questions. Responses can include additional links and multimedia within search or chat, keeping the interaction inside Google’s experience.
That conversational format could be useful when a person’s first query is only the start of a decision. A product search, for example, might lead to questions about advantages and disadvantages. Rather than submitting separate searches, the user can build on the earlier exchange.
Local searches offer another example. For restaurants, Google uses generative AI to interpret descriptions and reviews. The source also describes testing for hair salon queries, where the AI could provide information about average prices in the area.
Publishers and advertisers face a changing results page
Putting a synthesized response above links changes what users see first. Google’s market position means that even a change to the search page could alter how traffic moves across the internet. If people get more of what they need from the answer itself, they may have less reason to open individual websites.
At the same time, the interface can display links and visual information tiles that point to publishers’ pages. Their material may sit lower in the experience or appear as part of an answer, rather than being the first destination in a list. The source presents this as a possible compromise: content remains visible, though its position and role change.
Advertising is also part of the early design. Product search already includes ad placements, and the version shown in the source includes ads within the conversation. As searches become more interactive, the space around answers and follow-up questions creates new places for ads to appear.
Google’s interface is part of the competition
The source describes SGE as more usable and multimedia-rich than ChatGPT’s browsing with Bing, pointing to Google Maps and Shopping as services that can be integrated into answers. It also notes that Google offers more sources in the comparisons shown.
Some users may prefer ChatGPT’s simpler, ad-free text interface. But a search page combining answers, links, maps, shopping and follow-up questions may suit people who want to explore without switching between services. For OpenAI and Microsoft to draw users away from Google’s search ecosystem, the source argues, their chatbot experience needs to offer more.
SGE was initially available to users in the U.S. who were premium Google One customers and had access to Google’s Search Labs waitlist. Search Labs was not available in other countries or languages beyond English at the time described. The rollout was therefore an early test of how generative AI might fit into everyday search, rather than a settled replacement for the link list.