Google tests a homepage that replaces the Search button with AI tools

By Simon Wu · 2026-08-11

The button that launched a billion searches is gone from Google's homepage

For 25 years, two buttons sat beneath the Google search bar: "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky." One of them is now missing from a live test running on the world's most visited page. In its place sit three AI shortcuts that push users toward generative tools before they have typed a single character.

The test was observed on 10 August 2026 across Chrome, Edge and the Comet browser, targeting users who are not signed into a Google Account.^[2] It is server-side, meaning Google controls who sees it and no browser extension or flag can reproduce it.

What the new layout actually shows

Beneath the search bar, three shortcuts appear: Create images, Ask about files and Brainstorm, with AI Mode embedded directly inside the search field itself. Venkat, author at Search Engine Watch, said Google "appears to be testing a more AI-focused version of its homepage for people who are not signed into a Google Account."^[2]

Two of the three shortcuts are available without logging in. Venkat said "Ask about files and Brainstorm worked without a Google Account, and we could also use AI Mode while signed out."^[2] Create images is the exception, requiring a Google Account to proceed. That single carve-out keeps identity anchored to the one feature with the most obvious content moderation obligations.

I'm Feeling Lucky, the survivor of every previous Google homepage refresh, remains. What disappears is the "Google Search" button itself. The interface no longer asks what you want to find; it offers what it thinks you might want to make, ask or brainstorm.

Twenty-five years in the making

The homepage redesign sits inside a broader product shift Google announced at its developer conference in May 2026. Elizabeth Reid, VP of Search at Google, said the company was introducing a new intelligent AI-powered Search box, described as the biggest upgrade in over 25 years, supporting text, images, files, videos and Chrome tabs as inputs.^[1] That multimodal surface makes the old text field look narrow by comparison.

Reid reported that AI Mode surpassed one billion monthly users in its first year, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch.^[1] If queries are doubling every quarter, the volume moving through AI Mode by the end of 2026 will be multiples of what it handled at launch. The homepage test is an interface built to handle that scale.

The new intelligent Search box began rolling out immediately in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available.^[1] The homepage test adds a layer on top: not just a smarter input field, but a front door redesigned around generative outputs rather than indexed results.

What this means for publishers and search traffic

For SEO professionals and publishers, the architecture of a search homepage is not cosmetic. The classic Search button anchored a behavioural loop that has driven web traffic for a quarter century: user types query, user clicks Search, user receives a list of links, user clicks through to a page. Remove the button, embed AI Mode in the search field and front-load shortcuts toward generative interactions, and that chain shortens. Users may receive an answer before they ever visit a URL.

The test targets signed-out users, the segment least likely to have strong Google account habits and most likely to be casual, high-volume searchers arriving from browser default settings. Browsers ship with Google as the default search engine, meaning signed-out users represent fresh sessions, often from people who have not actively chosen to engage with AI tools. Surfacing AI shortcuts to them by default normalises the behaviour at the widest possible funnel entry point.

Google has not issued a public statement about the August homepage test, confirmed a rollout timeline or commented on its implications for click-through traffic from organic search results. What Google has confirmed, through Reid's May announcement, is the direction of travel: the Search box is becoming an AI agent interface, and the homepage is the first place users will see that change.

What stays the same, for now

Classic keyword search still works in the test variant. Typing a query and pressing Enter returns results as it always has. The absence of the Search button does not remove search; it repositions it. The dominant visual real estate beneath the bar now belongs to generative shortcuts, not the act of querying.

Google has run homepage experiments before and not shipped them. The dual-button layout itself survived years of design iteration. The scale of the AI Mode rollout, the billion-user milestone and the multimodal search box announced in May 2026 together form a context in which this test is harder to read as routine. A company processing queries that double every quarter has operational incentives to route more of them through AI-native surfaces.

For publishers measuring referral traffic and for SEO professionals optimising for organic visibility, the August experiment is worth monitoring closely. Google's new intelligent Search box began rolling out across all AI Mode markets immediately after the May 2026 announcement.

Simon Wu

Simon Wu writes about Asia-Pacific markets and China's economy. He reads the Chinese-language financial press closely and looks for the stories that reach Australia before anyone here notices.