The post-search Google era begins

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Podcasts PodcastsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Podcasts Tech TechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Tech Google GooglePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All GoogleThe post-search Google era beginsOn The Vergecast: The AI will Google for you now, the Trump Phone is real, and SpaceX is SpaceT-Mobile. On The Vergecast: The AI will Google for you now, the Trump Phone is real, and SpaceX is SpaceT-Mobile. by David Pierce David PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

FollowSee All by David PierceMay 22, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC David Pierce David PiercePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

Google is many things, but most of the time it’s a verb: It is what it is to search the internet for information. But what if it’s an AI agent doing the searching? And it’s doing it proactively?

Without even telling you about it? In the world Google imagines, in which so much of the actual googling happens without your prompting, involvement, or even knowledge, can you even call Google a search engine anymore? Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts.

Industry Implications

You can sign up here. These are the heady questions we get to in this episode of The Vergecast. But first, we have some news to talk about.

There’s the corporate news — which really boils down to “nothing that matters is changing” — and there’s some exciting podcast news. The Vergecast is going daily! Starting June 1st, we’ll be in your feeds five days a week.

We’d love to hear all your thoughts, story ideas, feedback, deep-seated fears, and qualms about all of this, so give us a call at 866-VERGE11 or email us at vergecast@theverge. Then it’s on to the news of the week. Which is mostly from Google I/O, where Nilay went both to cover the event and to chat with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.