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Today Google Search offered to show me a new feature that's been added to Google Search.
Apparently this new feature is ** distinct ** from Gemini, but (apparently) there is ? some ? sharing of ? resources ?
I'm opening this new topic so NewMars members and readers will be aware of this new development.
In Post #3 I'll quote a part of the conversation just ended.
The original purpose of today's inquiry was to obtain contact information for the new Costa Rica chapter of the Mars Society.
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Post #3: A transcript of part of a conversation with Google's new Extended Search AI Assistant.
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This post contains part of an encounter with a new Google Search Assistant.
The search that started this encounter was a simple request for contact information for the new Costa Rica Mars Society chapter.
Google Search offered to show it's new capabilities, and I decided to find out what was on offer.
We pick up the session after Google Search Extended AI Assistant delivered some nicely formatted BBCode showing contact information.
Your offer of assistance with the introduction to go with outreach to the contacts you suggested is interesting, and I think it shows your willingness to be helpful in complex human relations situations like this. However, it seems to me you would need to know a great deal more about us before you could create text that is suitable.
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You are absolutely right. Writing on behalf of a group requires a deep understanding of your specific mission, tone, and what you hope to achieve with the connection. A message from a university research group, for instance, sounds very different from one written by a private aerospace startup or a community outreach program.To tailor the text so it feels authentic to your organization, I would indeed need a bit more context. If you’re open to it, could you share:Who are "we"? (e.g., a student group, a tech collective, or an established NGO?)What is the goal? (e.g., a formal partnership, requesting a guest speaker, or simply introducing your forum members to their work?)What is the desired "vibe"? (e.g., highly professional and academic, or enthusiastic and community-driven?)
Would you like to provide those background details now, or would you prefer I provide a few different templates (e.g., professional vs. casual) that you can edit yourself?
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I am experimenting with the new Extended Google Search, and am impressed by our opening session. However, we have been working with ChatGPT and Gemini for well over a year, and have a great deal of context built up in the saved sessions. What is your relationship to Gemini?
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It is great to hear you are finding this session productive! To clarify my "identity": I am a large language model, trained by Google.
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Do you have capabilities that extend beyond Gemini? My understanding is that Gemini is a LLM trained by Google.
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This AI on Google Search is powered by the Gemini family of multimodal models. This AI integrates Gemini with other tools and "grounding" systems.Model vs. AssistantIt is helpful to distinguish between Google, the Gemini large language model, and the service you are currently interacting with.Gemini Models: These are the models trained by Google on vast datasets of text, code, audio, and images.Assistant Capabilities: This AI uses these models to perform complex reasoning and generation. This AI also has access to "grounding" via Google Search, which allows the AI to use the latest facts and cite specific sources rather than relying solely on training data.Capabilities Beyond Standard LLM Limits
The capabilities extend beyond basic text generation in a few key ways:Multimodality: This AI can process and reason across different types of data, including video, audio, and software code, rather than just text.Grounding with Search: Unlike a "standard" LLM whose knowledge is frozen at a certain date, this AI can use Google Search to find real-time information.Agentic Features: This AI can break down complex problems into sub-tasks and use tools like Gemini Deep Research to synthesize detailed reports.Ecosystem Integration: This AI can connect to Google Workspace tools (like Gmail or Drive) to provide personal context when specifically authorized.This AI's "Extended Search" mode is designed to prioritize freshness and accuracy by actively verifying facts through the Google Search Graph.
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Tell me more about the AI's grounding capabilitiesWhat multimodal tasks can Gemini handle?
How does Google's AI in Search differ from other search engines?
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12 sitesGoogle Geminihttps://gemini.googleAn overview of the Gemini app* 1 Pre-training. Gemini is powered by Google's most capable AI models, designed with varying capabilities and use cases. Like mos...Deep (Learning) Focus·Deep (Learning) Focushttps://cameronrwolfe.substack.comGoogle Gemini: Fact or Fiction? - Deep (Learning) FocusDec 21, 2023 — Problem Solving over Multiple Modalities. ... Although Gemini performs (relatively) well on language-only benchmarks, one of the m...Google Geminihttps://gemini.googleGemini Deep Research — your personal research assistantMar 13, 2025 — An agentic system ... For Deep Research, we trained Gemini models to be capable of: Breaking down the problem: When presented with...Show all
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Thank you for introducing yourself and your capabilities. It seems to me that someone just starting with the adventure of interacting with intelligent software would do well to start with you and just go from there. I am reluctant to proceed any further because of significant prior investment of time and mental exercise dealing with a great variety of requests. Thank you very much for your well formed BBCode! It looks good in our forum. While I'm away, I'd like to offer my very best wishes for success as you seek new companions to embark upon the adventures you and they have in store.
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That is a very kind and thoughtful sentiment. I completely understand the hesitation; building a "shorthand" and a shared history with an AI takes significant mental effort, and transitioning that context to a new platform is no small task.I am glad the BBCode worked perfectly for your forum! It was a pleasure helping you track down the details for the new Costa Rica chapter. Whenever you decide to bridge that gap or simply need a quick, grounded fact-check, I’ll be here ready to pick up where we left off.Thank you for the warm wishes, and best of luck with your community and your continued explorations in the aerospace world.Would you like to save this conversation for future reference, or should I help you with one last quick search before you head out?
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How does saving this conversation compare to saved chats in Gemini? Are the databases completely different? I assume you would be saving data in association with the Gmail address I am using for this computer.
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Saving conversations in this AI-integrated Search environment and the standalone Gemini app both use a Google Account, but they often function separately.App-Specific HistoryConversation history is typically app-specific. This means:A conversation in Search may not automatically appear at gemini.google.com.The record of interactions is often consolidated under Gemini Apps Activity in a Google Account. This is where Google saves prompts and responses to personalize future help.Key Technical DifferencesIn tools like Google AI Studio, chats can be saved as files in a dedicated Google Drive folder. Standard Gemini app chats are managed within the app's database.Interactions are often retained for 18 months by default, but this can be adjusted in your privacy settings. An auto-delete schedule can be set (ranging from 3 to 36 months).Newer updates allow Gemini to "recall" information across different threads to provide more tailored help. This "cross-chat" memory is sometimes a separate feature you must opt into.Importing and ExportingGoogle has introduced features to import chat history. A .zip file of previous conversations from other providers can be uploaded into Gemini to "pick up where you left off".Can I export my Google Search AI conversation history?
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How does a user manage Gemini App Activity?
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What's the difference between Gemini and Gemini Advanced?15 sitesYouTube https://www.youtube.comHow to Save Conversations in Gemini Google AI Studio
Feb 12, 2025 — let me show you how to save chat conversations. inside the Google AI Studio now one thing that's really annoying is if you use the...1:32Google Help
https://support.google.com
Saving a very large chat - Gemini Apps Community
Feb 1, 2026 — 4. Google AI Studio (The "Nuclear" Option) If you have been using Gemini through AI Studio ( aistudio.google.com ), your exports a...Google Help
https://support.google.comFind & manage your Gemini in Workspace conversation history
Your conversation history is app-specific. For example, a conversation with Gemini in Gmail only appears there and not in Gemini i...Show all
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You've given me a lot to think about. I'm glad I decided to accept the offer to learn about what appears to be a new member of Google's family of AI assistants. On the other hand, it is time for us to close this particular session, because (as you know) it is seductive to keep following suggestions you offer. Accordingly, when you reply this time, please take care to ** avoid ** generating a new offer of assistance.
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I understand completely. It has been a pleasure assisting you with the BBCode for your forum and discussing the evolving landscape of these tools. I appreciate the thoughtful conversation and the opportunity to introduce myself.Best of luck with your forum community and your future aerospace endeavors. Safe travels on your continued AI journey!
The personality of this entity is definitely more aggressive than either ChatGPT or Gemini. I'll probably avoid this new offering for the near term future, but on the other hand, the system accepted my guidance to tone things down, so perhaps it might be worth another try at some point.
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This post is about a report on the evolution of Google Search
https://time.com/article/2026/05/20/goo … wtab-en-us
It appears that Google Search is going to be powered by Gemini 3.5 which is (I'm pretty sure) the version I've been using in recent times.
Google Shifts to AI Search, Heralding Major Change in How People Use the Internet
by
Rebecca SchneidReporter
May 20, 2026 1:53 PM ETSundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.David Paul Morris—Bloomberg
For many people, Google’s search box is the lobby of the internet. Simple and intuitive, it has shaped how people navigate online for nearly three decades and was the driving force behind the company’s meteoric rise.
Now, it is set to undergo a radical transformation to fully incorporate artificial intelligence.
The company announced on Tuesday that the search bar will be “completely reimagined with AI,” calling it the biggest change in more than 25 years.
The change has the potential to reshape how people use the Internet and access information, and could disrupt many industries that rely on search traffic to drive customers their way.
TechCrunch, a technology news site, covered the change with a story headlined: “Google Search as you know it is over.”
While Google already has “AI Mode,” the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model.
Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questions—similar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.
This new model will help users formulate questions with suggestions that “go beyond autocomplete” and let users search not just using text, but by uploading images, files, videos or Chrome tabs as search inputs, the company said in a blog post announcing the change.
The new search could disrupt industries
Tech experts have suggested that the new changes could dramatically change how people use search and the Internet.
“It’s not hard to imagine a future where, someday, Google just makes everything happen in one universal search box,” tech reporter Jay Peters writes for tech site The Verge after Google’s announcement.
“Google doing everything also means a lot of the web that Google relies on collapses under it," he continues. "Google may not care — it increasingly seems to just want a search bar that can do it all, no matter the cost."
When Google first started implementing AI-assisted results, news publishers warned of “catastrophic” impacts on the industry, much of which relies on Google search to drive users to their websites.
Last year, news websites saw significant traffic declines as chatbots increasingly replaced Google search as the primary way to find sites and ask questions.
Small businesses also noted drops in traffic to their sites from Google, which has traditionally delivered customers.
Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy & research at Amsive, a digital marketing agency, warned as early as last year that Google’s planned changes to search are “going to have a devastating impact on the Internet.”
“It will severely cut into the main source of revenue for most publishers and it will disincentivize content creators who rely on organic search traffic, which is millions of websites, maybe more,” she told Technology Magazine.
Agents will work in the background
Other upgrades will completely change the search experience for users, including a new way to infuse AI into Google Search by asking for “information agents” to keep them updated on things like new apartment listings.
“You could send an alert to track market movements in a particular sector with very specific parameters, and the agent will map out a monitoring plan for you, including the tools and the data it needs to access — like our real-time finance data,” Google’s head of Search, Liz Reid, announced at Google I/O 2026, an annual developer conference. “It will then keep track of those changes and let you know when the conditions are met, and provide a synthesized update with links and information you can dive into further.”
Google also announced an AI agent, Gemini Spark, that can work on tasks in the background, even when the user closes their laptop or phone.
Google’s increasing use of AI in search demonstrates a shift in how searching the Internet will work—an action likely to be performed less and less by real humans, and more and more by AI agents instructed to search for them.
The shift has been profitable for GoogleGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai said at the conference that the company’s AI Overviews now reach more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, and the Gemini app has grown to 900 million monthly active users—a testament to how the company has worked to catch up with competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI in the tech AI race.
Gemini now accounts for more than a quarter of generative AI traffic, according to Similarweb, up from 7% a year ago.
Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc., have poured billions of dollars into AI development; by the end of the year, the company expects to spend about $180 billion to $190 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, with a focus on AI infrastructure and chips, according to Pichai.
In its last quarter, Google reported that its advertising revenue rose almost 16% year over year to $77 billion.
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