Overview
- This week at Google I/O the company made Gemini 3.5 Flash the default model powering Search and the Gemini app, saying the model is faster and cheaper to run and better at coding and task automation.
- The Intelligent Search Box now accepts long, natural-language prompts plus images, files, videos and active Chrome tabs and keeps chat context so users can ask follow-up questions inside Search.
- Google previewed background information agents that monitor the web 24/7 and a personal agent called Gemini Spark that has been tested with a limited group and will be offered to paid subscribers, with an AI Ultra tier reported at about $100 per month.
- New ad formats will appear inside AI-generated answers, including AI-written product explainers and interactive business agents labeled “Sponsored,” raising immediate concerns about reduced click-through traffic to publishers, accuracy of summaries, and user privacy.
- Google plans a staged global rollout: the redesigned search box begins this week while agentic features and advanced tools will arrive for testers and paid tiers over the summer as Google scales infrastructure to handle massive token volumes.