Google redesigns search box for first time in 25 years — now AI-powered and multimodal

For a quarter century, Google's search box has been one of the most recognizable interfaces in computing: a thin white rectangle with a blinking cursor and typed keywords. On Tuesday, at the annual I/O developer conference, Google formally retired that paradigm.

The company announced a sweeping redesign of the search box itself — the literal text field where billions of queries begin every day — transforming it from a simple keyword input into a dynamic, AI-driven conversation starter. The new box accepts text, images, PDFs, videos, and even open Chrome tabs as inputs. Google is also merging its AI Overviews and AI Mode features into a single, seamless search flow, eliminating the friction that previously forced users to choose between a traditional results page and an AI-forward experience.

Liz Reid, Google's vice president and head of Search, called it "the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago" during a press briefing on Monday.

The announcement arrived alongside a flurry of other news — new Gemini models, a personal AI agent called Spark, an intelligent shopping cart, a reimagined developer platform — but the search box redesign may prove to be the most consequential. It is the clearest signal yet that Google views the future of its flagship product not as a place where users type fragmented keywords, but as an interface where they hold open-ended, multimodal conversations with an AI system backed by the entire web.

The changes show a fundamental shift in how Google expects people to interact with the product that generates the vast majority of Alphabet's revenue. The box itself now dynamically expands to accommodate longer, more conversational queries, inviting users to fully articulate complex questions.