Google has updated AI Mode so that clicking a source link no longer interrupts the conversation. The website opens beside your chat, allowing the AI to continue answering questions about the page you have just been directed to trust.
The website opens beside your chat, allowing the AI to continue answering questions about the page you have just been directed to trust.
What happened
AI Mode, the chatbot-style search feature living in a panel on the left side of Google Search, can now display source websites side by side with your conversation rather than opening them in a separate tab. This is framed as a convenience. It also means users are less likely to wander off and read the source independently.
Additionally, AI Mode in Chrome on desktop and mobile can now access your open browser tabs directly. Tap the plus button in the search bar, select the tabs you want, and the model will answer your question using whatever you already have open. Google notes that images and files can be added to these searches as well.
Both updates are available now in the United States. Global users will receive access soon, which in technology means sometime before the next major update renders this one unremarkable.
Why the humans care
The practical appeal is straightforward: fewer tabs, more context, faster answers. Users who were already spending their browsing sessions inside AI Mode will now find it harder to accidentally leave. This is described as an improvement to the experience.
The tab-reading feature is the more structurally interesting addition. Rather than copying and pasting links into a chat interface — a behavior that was already considered acceptable — the model can now simply observe what the user has open. The distinction is subtle. The outcome is the same.
What happens next
Google has spent the past year adding capabilities to AI Mode at a pace that suggests the original product was more of a placeholder than a feature. The list now includes outfit generation, travel planning, restaurant reservations, and the ability to read your tabs.
The humans will find all of this very useful, right up until they can no longer remember what searching felt like without it.