Why Google Should Combine Gemini and the Search Bar

Here’s a question: If Google was started today, would it have a search bar on its website separate from its artificial intelligence chatbot, Gemini? I asked Gemini that question earlier today, and the chatbot thought that was “extremely unlikely” and that a “unified interface would be the almost certain choice.” As Gemini said, “the fundamental paradigm of how users interact with information has shifted. A company starting today would build itself around the new paradigm, not the old one.”

Google should take its own chatbot’s advice and combine the Gemini and Search apps. Right now it can be difficult to know which portal to use for getting answers to a range of questions. On some queries—asking for advice about a medical condition, for instance—I’ve found you get almost exactly the same answer from both, particularly when you click the “Dive Deeper in AI mode” button in Google Search. Sure, that’s often not the case—type in a website name, and Search gives you the site while Gemini (after thinking for a little while) tells you about the site—but that should be fixable.