By Kelly Evans
Publication Date: 2026-01-07 14:51:00
Kelly Evans, Co-Host of CNBC’s Power Lunch
David A. Grogan | CNBC
For the first time yesterday, when I went to Google (which I do less and less of anymore), it asked me if I wanted to switch over to AI mode. I figured sure, since I’ve been using its AI summaries anyhow, and it put me into what looked like a full-blown version of Gemini or ChatGPT. No ads. No blue links.
What this tells me is that the era of Google as we knew it is officially over. And I, for one, certainly do not mourn that. As great as the product was when it was first introduced, is as bad as it became towards the end. Good luck finding any really useful links buried beneath all of their ads. Smaller businesses were justifiably furious at having to pay to compete up top against the deep-pocketed big guys for traffic they were rightly owed.
The search engine, in other words, had become nowhere near as effective as it used to be. And while regulators drool at the opportunity to jump in and set rules and prosecute…
