On May 21, 2025, at its annual I/O conference, Google presented a series of new products supposed to reposition its search engine at LLM time.
At the head of the poster: the massive integration of Gemini and the generalization of “AI Overviews”, these automatic summaries generated by the AI at the top of the results.
Behind these announcements, a more brutal reality:
The burst of Chatgpt, Perplexity and recently GPT Search has deeply shaken the use we have of the web.
Google tries to catch up in a race where he was supposed to play in conquered terrain in the face of the new conversational uses that appeared with the boom of the LLM.
Clearly: Google plays big. Very large. What is at stake is not only the relevance of its results, but its place even in the future of a conversational and synthetic web while raising new questions about the environmental impact, the sustainability of the media and the future of the entire economic model of online research.
- The end of classic research?
The generative AI redraws the contours of online information research. The standard was still eighteen months ago, the standard rested on keywords, blue links, clicks and manual verification of sources. Since then, Chatgpt, Perplexity or Copilot have imposed a new paradigm: that of a conversational, direct, often sourced, and capable research, and capable of summarizing, synthesizing and formulating complete responses without leaving the interface.
Google, long undisputed, saw this upheaval emerge. Too slowly. Bard did not convince. Gemini tries to catch up with lost time. In this interval, other actors have imposed themselves as reflexes. Result: Google remains dominant in volume of traffic, but sees its share reduction on so -called “informational” requests, heart of its advertising model.
The Google I/O 2025 conference marks a turning point. Gemini is now integrated into the entire Google ecosystem: Gmail, Chrome, Docs, Meet. A more proactive “fashion agent” (Mariner project) arrives on mobile. And above all, the AI Overviews – summarized responses generated by AI – will now be generalized in engine results. The Google experience becomes conversational, to align with new uses.
- A race for AI that redraws the web economy
But this evolution is accompanied by unpublished tensions.
Energy level, first. Generate an answer via a language model consumes much more than a simple classic research. With an on -board AI everywhere – navigators, operating systems, platforms – each interaction weighs heavier on the environment. A size paradox for technological giants who promise neutral carbon data centers by 2030.
Economically then. Many media, sites and creators of content still depend on traffic from search engines to live. However, if the user no longer needs to click, the audiences are expanding, and the income drops. While some large groups have anticipated the change by contracting with AI suppliers, the majority of independent publishers risks a dry loss of visibility, and in the long term, of viability.
The question becomes central: what value to offer in the face of an AI capable of synthesizing everything? What content still deserves a click, a reading, a human interaction?
Because the LLM impose a complete redefinition of access to information. Where Google offered links, these tools offer answers. With the deployment of Ai Overviews, this model becomes the norm-including in Google itself. The risks are real: reliability of content, traceability of sources, dilution of editorial diversity. In the short term, a hybrid model seems to impose itself: generative AI for synthesis, classic indexes for verification and monetization.
In the long term, the digital ecosystem will have to reconcile three imperatives: information relevance, energy sobriety, and responsible governance of data.
Google still retains its advance, but no longer has the monopoly of innovation. The I/O 2025 conference marks an attempt to reconquer, but also reveals a definite delay. The massive integration of Gemini is more like a catch -up than a revolution. 2 announcements have marked the spirits: Veo 3, enriched video generation tool (with sound, music, sound effects, integrated and synchronized dialogues), which crosses a notable technological course. And “Gemini Fashion Agent” which can act in Google applications to perform tasks independently (for example, send an email via Gmail, launch a route in Maps, etc.). For the rest, Google’s domination is now challenged on its own land.
Research has changed.
The interface too.
The web will never be the same again.
