Google announces glasses are back and search is getting an AI makeover

Google announced Tuesday that it would expand its search bar, the centerpiece of the most-visited website in the world, with a heavy dose of artificial intelligence. The tech giant is also trying its hand at hi-tech glasses again, more than a decade after wearers of its first eyewear were dubbed “ glassholes ” and laughed out of San Francisco. Google executives announced at the company’s annual conference for software developers, Google I/O, that its search box would accommodate longer and more specific queries than before – questions more like those people would ask one another than Search’s idiosyncratic syntax . The changes will direct users to engage directly with Google’s chatbot. The change to search is underpinned by the company’s new artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3.5, announced the same day. Executives said Gemini would make longer text predictions based on what users have already typed than it does currently. An everyday Google search may likewise return more visual elements and suggestions to interact with Google’s AI to create a calendar invite, a plan in a spreadsheet or another action within Google’s family of products. “Google Search is AI search,” said Elizabeth Reid, who oversees the product, calling the changes the biggest Google Search had seen in its nearly 30-year history. The updates roll out globally to the desktop and mobile versions of Google Search Tuesday. …