By Abner Li
Publication Date: 2025-12-31 20:05:00
A decade or so ago, I thought Google needed a newer mission than “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Having never lived without the Search engine, I frankly thought the mission was solved and that Google needed a new aspirational aim.
As the years went by, I kept hearing Google refer to it as a “timeless” mission, and I don’t think I appreciated that sentiment until the end of traditional Search.
I do believe the era of 10 blue links is coming to a close. The through-line of technology is that people want more and more convenience at a faster speed. Getting an answer immediately was always going to win out. Google’s mission is timeless because of an inherent awareness of this. Before AI, that next frontier was visual search with Google Lens and allowing people to ask about the world without describing it beyond a picture.
Besides directly getting the answer, I think the…
