The End of Search? Google’s AI Mode and the Rise of the “Everything App”

Google Search, once the defining tool of the internet, may soon fade into the background. At its recent developer conference, Google unveiled a bold transformation called AI Mode, a chatbot-style interface designed to replace traditional keyword searches with conversational, context-aware interactions. It’s not just another AI summary above blue links — it’s a signal that Google wants to retire the search bar itself.

AI Mode functions more like ChatGPT than classic Google Search. Ask a question and it generates an answer, then allows for natural follow-ups without forcing users to navigate through a list of web pages. Google has already begun rolling out the feature in the U.S., with promises of further experimental capabilities like real-time visual assistance, payments, reservations, and even crafting research reports — essentially, everything you might need online, handled by a single tool.

Google isn’t alone. Major players like OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and even Airbnb are chasing the holy grail of tech: the everything app. These apps aim to centralize every digital task—shopping, planning, communicating, creating—into one seamless AI-powered experience. Meta’s assistant draws on your Facebook and Instagram history. Apple’s Apple Intelligence and revamped Siri personalize support based on your texts and emails. OpenAI’s new ChatGPT memory remembers your preferences over time, while Microsoft’s Copilot and Amazon’s Alexa+ claim to be companions for every digital moment.

Why this shift? Two main drivers: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) ambitions and data consolidation. The promise of AGI—a system that can perform any intellectual task a human can—naturally lends itself to an app that can do everything. And the more data these systems have access to, the better they can predict and serve user needs. Google already integrates search, shopping, cloud storage, payments, and navigation across billions of users. AI Mode just threads all of that into one interface.

But with great power comes great unease.

Chatbots today still hallucinate, miscalculate, and deliver problematic content. Google’s AI Overviews infamously suggested users eat rocks and glue cheese to pizza. On the same day it launched AI Mode, it also unveiled an AI shopping feature that could generate inappropriate images — a sharp reminder that these tools aren’t fully baked. Meanwhile, concerns around privacy, intellectual property, and AI’s environmental toll continue to intensify.

Still, the allure of the everything app persists. It offers ultimate convenience in exchange for total data transparency. The more you use it, the better it serves you — and the more it knows. Google’s Gemini, a universal AI assistant announced alongside AI Mode, aims to deepen this personalization by tapping into even more of the company’s services.

In the end, what’s being built isn’t just a better search engine. It’s a new operating system for life — one controlled by a handful of massive tech companies, each vying to be the digital center of everything you do.

Cited: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/06/everything-app-big-tech-ai-endgame/683024/