Google Search AI Mode Chrome Test Raises Antitrust Questions

Google is testing a Chrome behavior that would send every non-URL address-bar search query straight into AI Mode, bypassing standard Search entirely. The Google Search AI Mode Chrome test surfaced in the Canary build earlier this month, and while Google moved quickly to call it an accident, its existence lands at an awkward moment: a federal court has spent the last year dismantling the exact kind of default-setting arrangements that would make such a feature legally sensitive. The flag is narrow. Users have to manually enable it by navigating to chrome://flags in Chrome Canary on desktop, and it is not active for anyone by default. But the user base responding to Google's broader AI search push was already moving before the flag appeared. How the Chrome omnibox AI Mode flag worksThe flag's own description leaves little ambiguity. Google's internal label for it reads: "Redirects all normal searchbox queries in the omnibox and realbox to AI mode threads," covering Mac, Windows, Linux, a