Google is Testing a New Search Experience Similar to AI Mode on YouTube
Google is testing a new search experience on the YouTube platform that is similar to an "AI mode," allowing users to ask YouTube questions in a conversational manner and receive results pages integrated from long videos, short videos, and text information. This experimental feature, named "AskYouTube," is currently available to YouTube Premium subscribers aged 18 and over in the United States and needs to be manually enabled in account settings.
After enabling this feature, an "Ask YouTube" button will appear in the YouTube search box, and a series of example prompts will also be displayed when clicking on the search bar, such as "fun clips of baby elephants playing," "a summary of volleyball rules," and "a brief history of the Apollo 11 moon landing." If the user clicks "Ask YouTube" directly without entering any content in the search box, they will be taken to a separate page where they can see more recommended questions and a text input box for asking questions.
In the actual experience, when a user initiates a search through "Ask YouTube," the page will first briefly display a loading icon, and then generate a full page of AI-organized results. For example, using "a brief history of the Apollo 11 moon landing" as an example, the top of the page will display a text description outlining the mission, along with a list of key timeline nodes, such as the date of the moon landing and the time Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. Below the text introduction, the page will recommend a video from the "The Life Guide" channel and directly jump to the time segment related to the launch date. It will also display video galleries categorized by theme, such as "From Launch to Splashdown," "Historical Footage and Behind-the-Scenes," and "Lunar Moments," which also include several YouTube Shorts short videos.
At the bottom of the results page, the system will provide suggestions for follow-up questions, such as "Who were the astronauts on Apollo 11?" and "Apollo 11 conspiracy theories," and provide an input box for continuing to ask questions or starting a new search. Clicking on "Who were the astronauts on Apollo 11?" will regenerate a set of results with a slightly different format, including grid information about the backgrounds of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. In contrast, when asking the question "Apollo 11 conspiracy theories," the returned results are just a traditional list of YouTube search results, not an AI-generated page.
However, this test also exposed a factual error in the AI-generated results: the system claimed that the discontinued older Steam Controller did not have a joystick, while in fact it was equipped with one. This mistake reminds users that even if these AI-generated search results pages look convenient and well-organized, they still need to remain vigilant and verify facts when using them.
YouTube officials said they are working to expand this experiment to users who have not subscribed to Premium. Combined with Google's continued iteration on "AI mode" and its recent move to introduce the mode into Gmail, it is widely believed that "Ask YouTube" is likely to be seen as one of the company's key AI product forms for future development.