The future of Google is a search box that does everything

Google 的未来是一个无所不能的搜索框

Google, Gemini, Gmail — it feels like they could one day become a single search box. Google、Gemini、Gmail——感觉它们终有一天会融合成一个单一的搜索框。

Last year, after watching Google’s I/O keynote, I wrote that it felt like Google’s future was Google googling. After watching this year’s I/O keynote on Tuesday, I don’t think Google just wants to google for you — I think it wants to do everything for you, all from a search box. 去年，在观看完 Google I/O 主题演讲后，我曾写道，Google 的未来似乎就是“Google 正在 Google 化”。而在周二看完今年的 I/O 主题演讲后，我认为 Google 不仅仅是想为你进行搜索——它是想通过一个搜索框，为你完成所有事情。

Take the trusty Google search bar itself, something Google is generally hesitant to update, which is getting some updates. It will “dynamically” expand as you type longer queries. It will offer “AI-powered suggestions” that Google claims will “go beyond autocomplete,” which could cause you to fill in the blanks of a search in a way you didn’t intend but may or may not be helpful. 以那个可靠的 Google 搜索栏为例，Google 通常对更新它持谨慎态度，但现在它也迎来了一些升级。当你输入更长的查询词时，它会“动态”扩展。它将提供 Google 声称“超越自动补全”的“AI 驱动建议”，这可能会让你以非预期的方式补全搜索内容，至于是否有帮助则因人而异。

Or how about what Google actually shows in Search results? From AI Overviews you can keep asking questions in AI Mode, which generates a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about instead of showing you a traditional list of links. Search results are also going to be even more personalized because Google will be able to generate custom UI for you, including generating things like interactive visuals and graphs right within your search results page. You’re also going to be able to ask Google, right from the search bar, to make “information agents” that can keep track of things you care about — like new sneaker drops or apartment listings — making the search bar a kind of AI-infused Google Alert. 再看看 Google 在搜索结果中实际展示的内容。在 AI 概览（AI Overviews）中，你可以在 AI 模式下持续提问，它会生成一个包含 AI 总结的自定义页面，而不是展示传统的链接列表。搜索结果也将更加个性化，因为 Google 能够为你生成自定义界面，包括直接在搜索结果页面中生成交互式视觉效果和图表。你还可以直接在搜索栏中要求 Google 创建“信息代理”，以追踪你关心的事物——比如新款运动鞋发售或公寓房源——这使得搜索栏变成了一种注入 AI 的 Google 快讯（Google Alert）。

Gemini is getting a bunch of upgrades and features, too. It can send you a “Daily Brief” that tells you about your day based on information from across your Google apps, like Gmail and Google Calendar. You can create your own custom Google-powered agents thanks to a feature called Gemini Spark, which could have a leg up on agents like OpenClaw because it’s a first-party offering from Google. The company has also been recently making a big kerfuffle about Personal Intelligence, which pulls in context from your other Google apps that helps inform your responses from Gemini. Gemini 也获得了一系列升级和功能。它可以根据你所有 Google 应用（如 Gmail 和 Google 日历）的信息，为你发送一份“每日简报”，告知你当天的安排。得益于名为 Gemini Spark 的功能，你可以创建自己的自定义 Google 驱动代理，由于这是 Google 的第一方产品，它可能比 OpenClaw 等代理更具优势。该公司最近还大肆宣传“个人智能”（Personal Intelligence），它能从你的其他 Google 应用中提取上下文，从而帮助 Gemini 提供更精准的回复。

In Workspace, Google wants you to just blab at tools like Gmail and Docs and Keep, and the apps will help with things like parsing your inbox, drafting a document, or generating to-do lists. For shopping, the new Universal Cart will keep track of things you want to buy in apps like Search, Gemini, Gmail, and YouTube — and let you check out using Google’s payment infrastructure. And speaking of YouTube, the company is testing an AI Mode-like experience there, too, where it will put together a page of search results instead of just showing you a list of things to watch. 在 Workspace 中，Google 希望你只需对着 Gmail、文档（Docs）和 Keep 等工具“唠叨”几句，这些应用就能帮你处理诸如解析收件箱、起草文档或生成待办事项列表等任务。在购物方面，全新的“通用购物车”（Universal Cart）将追踪你在搜索、Gemini、Gmail 和 YouTube 等应用中想要购买的商品，并让你使用 Google 的支付基础设施进行结账。说到 YouTube，该公司也在那里测试类似 AI 模式的体验，它将汇总一个搜索结果页面，而不是仅仅向你展示一个观看列表。

There’s more, too — with the new Gemini Omni models, you’ll be able to create a video using things like other videos, other images, and audio as prompts. Down the line, you’ll be able to generate other media as well; the family of models is meant to be able to “create anything.” 不仅如此，借助全新的 Gemini Omni 模型，你将能够使用其他视频、图片和音频作为提示词来创作视频。未来，你还将能够生成其他媒体内容；这一系列模型旨在实现“创造一切”。

I could go on; there was a lot announced at I/O. But what I’m trying to get at here is that Google isn’t just showing you the location of information anymore. Through its various search boxes, it’s now just answering questions for you in a way that it thinks is most helpful. In the most charitable view: If it’s done well and accurately, this all could be very useful. But that means it has to be done well and accurately, and that’s an extremely high bar to clear, especially with complex search queries or questions about sensitive data like my years of emails in Gmail. 我还可以继续列举，I/O 大会上发布的内容实在太多了。但我想表达的是，Google 不再仅仅是向你展示信息的位置。通过各种搜索框，它现在正以它认为最有帮助的方式直接为你回答问题。从最宽容的角度来看：如果做得好且准确，这一切可能非常有用。但这要求必须做到准确无误，而这是一个极高的门槛，尤其是在处理复杂的搜索查询或涉及敏感数据（如我在 Gmail 中多年的邮件）的问题时。

It’s not hard to imagine a future where, someday, Google just makes everything happen in one universal search box. No more hopping between Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Gemini — my gut is that Google’s current end state is that you just type anything you’re looking for into an Ask Google box, and Google finds a way to make it happen and surface it for you in a personalized way. 不难想象，未来有一天，Google 会让一切都在一个通用搜索框中实现。不再需要在 Google 搜索、YouTube、Gmail 和 Gemini 之间来回切换——我的直觉是，Google 目前的终极目标是让你只需在“询问 Google”框中输入任何你想找的东西，Google 就会找到实现它的方法，并以个性化的方式呈现给你。

Assuming that’s the case, that’s not something I want. The fun of the internet is actually doing the work to find stuff, even if it’s sometimes frustrating, difficult, or time-consuming. Sure, the pitch for talking to Gmail to get help finding things in my inbox seems handy, but I’ve also spent years honing my own email management system — one that would work whether I used Gmail or not. It also works great for me, I think we should all have to go through the motions of figuring out the systems across all of our digital lives that work best for us instead of just relying on Google to figure it all out from one universal search box. 如果真是这样，那并不是我想要的。互联网的乐趣在于亲自去寻找东西，即使有时会感到沮丧、困难或耗时。当然，通过与 Gmail 对话来获取收件箱查找帮助听起来很方便，但我已经花了多年时间磨练自己的电子邮件管理系统——无论我是否使用 Gmail，它都能正常工作。它对我来说效果很好，我认为我们每个人都应该经历摸索的过程，找出最适合我们数字生活的系统，而不是仅仅依赖 Google 通过一个通用搜索框来解决所有问题。

Google doing everything also means a lot of the web that Google relies on collapses under it. If Google Search doesn’t send traffic to publishers or websites who need visitors to make money — something that is already happening at a rapid rate, thanks Google Zero! — what will Search learn from, and where will it point people to? If YouTube’s AI Mode-like feature stops people from browsing videos, how will creators who lose their audience be able to support themselves to make more videos? Google may not care — it increasingly seems to just want a search bar that can do it all, no matter the cost. Google 包揽一切也意味着它所依赖的许多网络内容将在其重压下崩溃。如果 Google 搜索不再为需要访客来盈利的出版商或网站输送流量——这种情况多亏了“Google Zero”已经在迅速发生——那么搜索还能从哪里学习？它又能把用户引向何处？如果 YouTube 的 AI 模式功能阻止了人们浏览视频，那些失去观众的创作者又该如何维持生计以制作更多视频呢？Google 可能并不在乎——它似乎越来越只想拥有一个无所不能的搜索栏，而不惜一切代价。