Google's AI Search Overhaul: Gemini 3.5 Flash Powers Agents & Custom Apps

Google is transforming its core search engine from a static link list into an expansive AI-driven hub. The upgraded search bar dynamically grows to accept conversational questions, files, photos, videos, and Chrome tabs, all powered globally by the new Gemini 3.5 Flash AI model. Users can now ask follow-up questions directly from AI Overview summaries, maintaining continuous back-and-forth conversations with context retention. This eliminates the friction between automated summaries and chatbot-style AI Mode, as explained by VP Liz Reid.

Beyond conversational search, Google is launching 'information agents' that autonomously monitor blogs, news, social media, and real-time data feeds 24/7 for long-term tasks like apartment hunting or sneaker drop tracking, sending synthesized alerts. The system also expands automated booking for US services—finding pricing, availability, and even placing phone calls to businesses for home repair, pet care, and beauty. Most radically, using the Antigravity platform and Gemini 3.5 Flash, Search can generate custom interactive dashboards, graphs, and mini-apps on the fly—like a fitness tracker integrating live maps and weather data—effectively turning the search bar into a code generator.