Google confirmed it is testing three new buttons directly beneath the homepage search box, each one designed to push visitors into AI Mode, Google’s conversational search experience. The placement matters more than the buttons themselves: this is arguably the highest-traffic entry point on the open web, the page nearly every Search session still opens from. Putting an AI Mode shortcut there, rather than leaving it tucked inside an existing menu, changes who encounters the option and how often.
Barry Schwartz first spotted the change this morning and wrote about it at Search Engine Roundtable. Google then confirmed the test to Search Engine Land. Robby Stein, Google’s vice president of product, addressed it directly on X, describing it as “a small test on desktop” meant to help visitors discover capabilities inside Search they might not already use.
Stein was precise about what the test does not touch. He said the change carries no effect on the core query box: typing a question and pressing enter still functions exactly as it always has, which he noted is “how most people search anyways.” That distinction is worth holding onto exactly as stated. Google is not describing a redesign of the query box or of how ranked results get produced. It is adding entry points beside a box that, by Google’s own account, stays untouched.
The three labeled actions are not query shortcuts, and that is the more consequential detail. Create images generates original artwork rather than retrieving one that already exists. Ask about files lets a visitor interrogate a document they upload, a task no ranked list of web pages can perform. Brainstorm returns a set of generated ideas, not a results page at all. None of the three produces anything resembling a traditional results page, which means Google is using its scarcest piece of homepage space to introduce visitors to actions a blue link was never built to do.
Schwartz, who has covered Google’s homepage for years, offered a skepticism worth repeating. After two decades of ignoring the “I’m feeling lucky” button, he expects to keep ignoring these new buttons too. That is not a data point Google can confirm or dispute. It is a reminder that homepage placement does not guarantee attention, no matter how prominent the spot.
A search team should read the current test narrowly. Google has described it as small and limited to desktop, not as a change headed for general release. Schwartz said he could replicate the test himself, which confirms it is live and in rotation, but one writer’s replication says nothing about how many users see it, how long it runs, or whether it reaches mobile at all. Google’s statement addresses none of those questions, and the gap should not be filled with assumption.
Should Google widen this test beyond its current limits, the buttons would compete for attention with the query box on a page where the interface has otherwise stayed stable for years. Search teams that track AI Mode adoption should start logging desktop referral sources now, before any wider release, so a pre-test baseline exists to measure against if Google decides to move these buttons past their current limited run.
Search Engine Land, reported by Barry Schwartz, published August 11, 2026.
