Google appears to be testing a left-hand sidebar on its standard web results page, a layout that until now belonged to AI Mode. Damien Andell posted a screenshot on X showing the small Google “G” logo, chat history lines, a button for starting an AI Mode chat, and a settings icon stacked down the left edge.
Andell asked whether the sidebar had become the default for every results page. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable could not reproduce it in any of his browsers, which points to a limited test rather than a full rollout.
Marie Haynes separately reported Gemini conversations in the sidebar, then issued a correction: those chats came from Gemini on an Android phone through the Gemini overlay, not from the Gemini app.
The placement matters because a permanent AI Mode entry point on ordinary results would sit beside every query. Nothing in the report shows Google confirming the change. Teams tracking AI Mode usage should screenshot their own results pages now, so any later layout shift has a baseline.
Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz, October 14, 2026.
