Google Doubles Down on AI Dominance: ’Canvas’ and ’Search Live’ Turbocharge Search Experience

Google just dropped two game-changing AI features—and your search habits will never be the same.

Meet Canvas and Search Live: The AI power duo rewriting the rules of search. No more static results—now you're getting dynamic, context-aware interactions that learn as you go. (And yes, it'll probably track your every click to sell more ads.)

Why this matters: The search giant isn't just playing defense against ChatGPT. It's weaponizing its 90% market share with AI that makes competitors look like dial-up. Investors are already salivating—because nothing pumps stock prices like buzzwords and data harvesting.

The bottom line: Google's AI arms race just went thermonuclear. Your move, OpenAI.

What is Google’s Search Live?

Google is also bringing Project Astra’s technology into AI Mode under a new name, Search Live.

Integrated with Google Lens, Search Live enables tapping the Live icon in the Lens view, pointing the camera at an object, and posing questions as if accompanied by a remote expert.

“When going Live with Search, it’s like having an expert on speed dial who can see what’s in view and talk through tricky concepts in real time, all with easy access to helpful links on the web,” said Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search.

This week, video‑enabled Search Live will launch on mobile devices for U.S. testers in AI Mode Labs.

Shortly after, Google plans to let desktop users query displayed content via Lens in AI Mode. For example, when viewing a geometry diagram in a browser, users can select “Ask Google about this page,” pick the diagram, and receive an AI‑generated summary with a “Dive deeper” follow‑up button in the side panel.

Desktop support for AI Mode’s image and document features is expanding, too. While image‑based queries have long been available on mobile, they’ll now work on computers as well. A new PDF uploader will allow dropping in slide decks or reports and posing detailed questions that go beyond the text. Later this year, additional file types, such as documents stored in Google Drive, will be supported.

Google is yet to finalize its ad strategy for AI mode

Hema Budaraju, Google’s product manager for search, said that the company is still determining how advertising will work within AI responses and whether sites can pay to appear there, reported BBC. She noted that this new interface encourages richer, more natural queries, where once someone might have typed “clean carpet stain,” they might now write, “I spilled coffee on my Berber carpet and need a pet‑safe cleaner.”

In a recent demonstration, Google showed how AI Mode could suggest family‑friendly strawberry‑picking locations across a broad area, with business listings appearing lower in the results than in a standard search.

Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center study found that AI‑first summaries yielded only one click per 100 searches, though Google disputed the methods. Still, advocates like Rosa Curling of Foxglove warn that keeping users’ attention on Google’s own pages could undermine news outlets’ advertising revenue.

Finally, Google noted that it already generates more than two billion AI Overview boxes each day, across over 40 languages, excluding the EU due to regulations. The company acknowledged that running AI at scale requires extensive data‑center resources, including significant energy and water, and reaffirmed its commitment to advancing sustainable practices.

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