Google adds split screen to AI Mode: websites now open next to the chat

Google has added a split-screen feature to AI Mode for Chrome Desktop: clicking a link inside the AI chat now opens the site right next to the conversation, without interrupting it. It may look like a minor interface detail, but it is a fundamental decision about how AI search should work.

AI Mode is Google's next step in rethinking search. After AI Overviews, the AI-summary blocks the company began inserting directly into results, AI Mode goes further: search here is built entirely as a dialogue with a language model. The user asks a question, gets a synthesized answer with sources, refines it and continues the conversation. There is no traditional list of links, just an AI interface with references. The feature is part of a large-scale overhaul of search that the company is pursuing under pressure from ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI competitors.

The problem with classic AI search is the gap between the answer and the source. The model synthesizes information from dozens of pages and produces a tidy paragraph. But what if the user wants to check a fact, read the full context, or make sure a quote has not been taken out of context? Until now that meant leaving AI Mode: you click a link, land on the site in an ordinary tab, lose the thread of the conversation, and when you return you have to rebuild the context from scratch.

Split screen closes that gap. Clicking a link opens the site in a side panel while the AI chat stays in place. The user reads the source and can immediately ask the model a follow-up question, ask it to summarize what is on the page, or compare it with another source. The AI and the primary source sit side by side in one window, which is a different way of working with information.

There is a deeper story behind this feature. AI Overviews faced harsh criticism from the start: soon after launch, a collection of blatantly wrong and sometimes dangerous advice from AI snippets spread online, including suggestions to eat potentially poisonous mushrooms, add glue to pizza and more. The reputational hit was significant. Since then Google has updated the system several times, making sources more prominent and reducing the model's confidence in areas of uncertainty. Split screen fits that logic: the AI does not replace sources, it sits alongside them.

The competitive context matters. Microsoft Bing with Copilot has long offered a hybrid view, with the AI answer on the left and a list of sources on the right. Perplexity builds its whole product on this idea: every answer is structured analysis with citations and direct links. The difference is that Google has Chrome, with a market share of about 65%. An interaction pattern that other companies test on their own audiences, Google is rolling out straight to the mass market.

For publishers and SEO specialists the situation cuts both ways. Side-by-side means clicks to websites will not disappear: users still click through to the source. But the site now appears inside an AI conversation in a subordinate role, not as the starting point for independent research but as a verifier of the AI's answer. Engagement metrics such as time on page, scroll depth and repeat visits will inevitably change.

The feature is currently available only on desktop. The mobile version of AI Mode is technically harder to adapt for side-by-side: there is less screen space and a different UX pattern. When and how Google will solve this for smartphones is not yet known.

The browser is turning into an AI workspace where search, reading sources and talking to an AI happen without switching context. Google is making Chrome the shell for a new way of working with information.