Google has deployed its most valuable digital real estate – the homepage Doodle – to promote its pioneering AI Mode search feature, signaling the company's commitment to AI-powered search experiences.
The July 1st Doodle features an animated sequence where Google's logo jumps together into a single 'G', creating multicolored sparkles before reforming. When clicked, it directs users to explanatory content about AI Mode and provides an option to try the feature directly.
AI Mode represents Google's most sophisticated search capability to date, powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, the company's most intelligent AI model. Unlike traditional search, AI Mode can handle complex, multi-part questions and supports follow-up queries to explore topics more deeply. The technology employs a 'query fan-out' technique that breaks questions into subtopics and issues multiple searches simultaneously, delivering more comprehensive results than conventional searches.
"Search whatever's on your mind and get AI-powered responses," reads the product description when accessed from the homepage. The feature allows users to ask questions using text, voice, or images, making it particularly useful for complex inquiries that previously required multiple searches.
The promotion comes as Google faces increasing competition from AI startups like OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), and Perplexity AI. After initially being available only through Google's Search Labs experimental platform, AI Mode has now fully graduated to mainstream availability for all U.S. users, with India being the first international market for testing.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted that AI Mode leads to searches two to three times longer than traditional Google searches, sometimes reaching five times that length. The company is also developing additional capabilities for AI Mode, including Deep Search for in-depth research, complex data analysis with visualization, and agentic features that can help users complete tasks like purchasing event tickets or making restaurant reservations.
As part of Google's broader AI integration strategy, the company aims to eventually graduate many features from AI Mode into the core Search experience, reflecting its vision of making products more intelligent, personalized, and action-oriented.