Google's AI-Powered Search Shakeup Aims to Redefine User Experience Amid Antitrust Challenges

As of last week, Google's Class A shares (GOOGL) have seen a 0.88% increase. Over the past week, the stock has risen by 2.1%, yet it has experienced an 8.16% decline since the beginning of the year. The company’s market capitalization stands at $2.119 trillion. On March 7, 2025, Google's trading volume reached $4.735 billion, ranking it as the 13th most traded stock on the U.S. market that day, although the trading volume decreased by 3.06% with 27.3858 million shares changing hands.

Founded in California on September 4, 1998, and reincorporated in Delaware in 2003, Alphabet Inc. is the holding company for Google and its various subsidiaries. Alphabet engages in various sectors, including technology, life sciences, capital investment, and research. Google's main operations include internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technology, providing numerous internet-based products and services.

On March 3, 2025, an internal transaction was disclosed, revealing that Executive Amie Thuener O'Toole sold 1,374 shares. This follows a series of insider transactions, as company executives have recently taken similar actions.

In other developments, as of March 4, Google's Class A shares experienced a rise of 2.34% amid a slight dip of about 0.1% in the overall mega-tech sector index. Amid ongoing scrutiny, Google has been actively engaging with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding its search and advertising technology divisions. Google is currently facing two antitrust investigations, with potential actions from the Justice Department aiming to address alleged illegal monopolistic practices in online search.

Recently, Google announced plans to test an innovative AI-driven search model, "AI Mode." This new feature is aimed at allowing users to present more complex queries and receive comprehensive answers curated by artificial intelligence. This change could signify a transformative shift for Google’s core search product. Google's Vice President of Search Products, Robby Stein, highlighted that the AI Mode functions by running multiple simultaneous related searches to produce a cohesive response, differing from traditional keyword searches and better suited for complex inquiries.

The AI Mode will initially be available to subscribers of Google's AI services, marking a departure from Google's longstanding model of providing free search capabilities. This move comes as part of a strategy likely driven by competitive pressures from AI search startups and the success of AI conversational tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Google's AI Mode relies on the latest iteration of their Gemini 2.0 AI model, promising enhanced comprehension and analytical abilities. While it aims to integrate diverse forms of information, including text, images, and video, this development has sparked concerns among content creators who fear potential declines in website traffic due to direct answer offerings on search results pages. Google insists that sites can still benefit from ranking opportunities, yet the shift to AI search underscores the evolving dynamics in the digital information ecosystem.