Google Turns to Doodle to Promote Its New AI Search Tool
If you happened to open up Google’s homepage Monday, you might have noticed some slight discrepancies and no, it was not early celebration of a scientist or a cultural icon. This time, Google employed its well-known Doodle to showcase AI Mode, its newest AI-powered search tool designed to change how we search for information online.
What Is AI Mode?
AI Mode is Google’s smart search assistant that uses the Gemini AI model, and it’s meant to help you with the type of questions that are a bit more specialized than simple search queries the kind that, until now, you might open five tabs to fully address.
With AI Mode, users can:
- Ask complex questions
- Interact via text, voice, or image
- Receive detailed, conversational responses
In other words, it’s like having an amped-up chatbot living right inside your Google Search bar.
A Doodle with a Purpose
Google Doodles are typically reserved for honoring legends, national holidays, or cultural moments. But Tuesday’s Doodle was a new kind of content it led directly to AI Mode.
Even more interesting? It included a share button, an unusual design element for Doodles, which made it clear that Google was not just displaying art it was sending a damn message!
A Google spokesperson clarified: “This wasn’t a cultural or historical Doodle just a fun promo to help people explore AI Mode.”
The strategy is one of Google’s most substantial attempts yet to bring AI, and the benefits of such advances, to the forefront of available technology for everyday people.
Not Google’s First AI Experiment
This is the first time AI Mode has gotten the Doodle spotlight, but very quietly, Google has been rolling out the feature since last March 2025, inserting it alongside regular search results.
And if you remember back in May, Google even temporarily replaced the iconic “I’m Feeling Lucky” button with a shortcut to AI Mode quite a bold move, given how seldom that spot changes.
Why It Matters
Google isn’t just having fun trying out these ideas. It is a response to increasing competition from:
- OpenAI (ChatGPT)
- Anthropic (Claude)
- Perplexity AI (a rising AI-powered search tool)
By surfacing AI Mode, and making it accessible, Google is prompting people to get comfortable with AI-powered answers, so they’ll just stay in the Google box instead of going off to Bing for something.
The Future of Search?
This Doodle-inspired change may just be the start of a revolution in how we use search engines. AI Mode is obviously a heavily-relied-upon part of Google’s future vision, with voice input, image uploads, and rich, context-aware answers.
Whether browsing or buying, searching for answers or helping you get things done, expect AI to play a critical role in helping you…with what you need in the moment, as your co-pilot on Google Search.
How do you feel about AI Mode replacing regular search? Have you tried it yet? Share your views in the comments section below or tag us in your response on social media with @HackingBharat.
