Google finds new ways to keep you from ever visiting a website directly again

Update:

A Google spokesperson shared the following statement from Search product VP Robby Stein:

You're still visiting the website, and it still registers as a page view. If you click a link in AI Mode today, it opens a new tab in Chrome. With this feature, it opens the webpage in the same tab. We built this to make it easier for people to dive deeper in the web - so they can view the page while maintaining context.

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Google Search product VP Robby Stein

Still, the bigger picture holds: Google folds the website into the chat experience instead of sending users to the site on its own terms. I've tweaked the headline to reflect that.

Original article:

Google finds new ways to keep you from ever clicking a link again

Google is pushing AI mode deeper into Chrome, opening websites right next to the AI response so queries stay in the same window. The traditional page visit is fading, and Google's transformation from search engine to chatbot is becoming more concrete.

According to Google's blog post, clicking a link in AI mode will soon open the target page directly next to the search input on Chrome desktop. Users never leave the search dialog, and the website just becomes a context window alongside the chat.

Technically, Chrome loads the page, but the actual conversation about its content happens in the chat beside it. When users ask a question, AI mode pulls from the open page along with other web sources to deliver a synthesized answer. The website turns into a supporting actor for Google's response.

Google walks through two scenarios. In the first, a shopper researching a coffee machine can open a retailer's product page next to AI mode and ask how easy the device is to clean, with the AI pulling from that page and the broader web to answer.

The second example covers McLaren pit crew training: the team page sits on the right while AI mode answers questions about it on the left.

Early testers liked " that they didn’t have to constantly switch tabs to get help with a comprehensive article or a long video," according to Google's Stein and Torres. For publishers, the message is harder to swallow: the page becomes raw material for an answer that bypasses the original text. Scrolling, clicking deeper, and seeing ads all become less likely.

Multiple tabs feeding a single answer

A new plus menu on Chrome's new tab page and in AI mode lets users pull already-open tabs into a search on both desktop and mobile. Tabs, images, and files like PDFs can be bundled together and handed to AI mode as context.

Google's examples include planning family-friendly hikes based on travel sites you already have open, or prepping for exams using lecture slides, transcripts, and academic papers. The AI uses this material to craft a tailored answer and recommends additional pages. Several websites end up feeding a single Google-generated output.

Several studies have already shown that AI-generated answers cut traffic to external websites significantly. Google's head of search, Liz Reid, disputes those findings and calls the studies flawed, though Google hasn't offered solid counter-evidence.

Either way, dropping websites straight into AI mode is another step toward pulling the open web into Google's AI ecosystem. Google, for its part, sells the changes as a simple convenience upgrade. The features are launching in the US first, with other countries to follow, though Google hasn't said when.