- A user spotted Google testing Search without AI Mode on Chrome in Incognito mode.
- This follows a $500 million drop in Alphabet’s value due to underperforming ad revenue from AI Mode.
- It’s unclear if Google is limiting AI Mode for users it can’t make a profit from, or if it’s considering a return to stripped-down Search.
When Google started its search business in 1998, it stated that its mission was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Even though it still uses those words when it talks about Search, anyone who’s used AI Mode knows that it has strayed far from that original intent. Now there are signs that it might be ready to return to its roots.
On X, Optimize My Firm CEO Len Raleigh posted a screenshot of Google sans AI Mode that he came across while using Incognito mode on Chrome (via Search Engine Roundtable). He speculated that it was “[j]ust a test,” adding, “I still have AI Mode on other machines and on other sessions.” Search Engine Roundtable said it was not able to duplicate the result and neither were we at Android Authority.