(Credit: Google)
Google is testing a new "Web Guide" feature that uses AI to organize the search results page.
While complex Search algorithms organize traditional results page, Web Guide results will be sorted by a custom version of Gemini AI. The latter will make it easier to find information and “group web links in helpful ways,” Google says.
Web Guide also uses AI Mode’s fan-out technique, meaning it will present results for related queries alongside your main query. Unlike AI Overviews and AI Mode, which take over the top half of the page, this seems intended to offer AI-curated answers while retaining Search’s familiar structure and providing relevant blue links.
In a demo, Google shared Web Guide’s response to “how to solo travel in Japan.” The page had separate sections for comprehensive guides, personal experiences from other travelers, and safety and destination recommendations.
(Credit: Google)Each section had a short intro and a group of links to relevant sources. The intros don't give away all the details and leave enough mystery to prompt website visits. At first, you can see only two links in each section, but you can expand by clicking More. Reddit threads dominate here as well, and why wouldn’t they? Google pays $60 million a year to license the platform’s content.
How Gemini ranks web pages here is unclear, but the good news is that it allows at least a few websites to receive direct traffic from Search. With AI Overviews, a recent study found that the number of users clicking on links had reduced considerably.
For now, Web Guide is limited to those who sign up for it from Search Labs. It will appear in the same Web tab that you currently use to avoid AI Overviews and YouTube thumbnails. To switch from the Gemini-curated Web to the original one, you can click on Standard Web at the top.
In the future, Google hopes to bring Web Guide to the “All” results tab as well. (Goodbye, Search algorithms?)