Michael King, founder of iPullRank, was one of the first to spotlight this patent with a technical breakdown that got the industry buzzing.

The patent describes:

• A system that remembers what you’ve searched for before
• Then builds a persistent user state
• And uses large language models (LLMs) to guide you through multi-step search journeys

In my opinion, Google’s not just providing a better search experience; it's a fundamental restructuring that could dismantle the open web as we know it. 

I know that sounds extreme. But I read the full patent, and in this op-ed, I’ll unpack what Google’s really building, and how it forces us to rethink content creation for a memory-driven, probabilistic search engine.

Before we get into the technical mechanics of the patent, let’s talk about why Google is reinventing search in the first place.

Google says it wants to make search faster and effortless, but there’s more to it.

It’s really about the fundamental mismatch between how humans look for information and how traditional search engines are built to respond.

Let’s use an example, like buying a camera for photography.

Traditional search assumes users type something like “best cameras 2025,” skim the results, click, and move on.

But the real search behavior looks more like this:

• Day 1, on a laptop at work: “Best cameras for beginners 2025”
• Same day, over lunch: “Which is better—Canon E0S R50 vs Sony a6400? ”
• That evening, on their phone: “Canon E0S R50 image quality reviews ”
• Three days later, at home after watching a TikTok video: “Is Canon EOS R50 good for video recording and YouTube content? ”

One week later, after checking their budget: “Cheaper alternative to Canon E0S R50” or “Discount coupon for Canon E0S R50 ”

This is how real people search—fragmented across days, devices, moods, and mental models. Each search builds on the last, but traditional search treats them like isolated one-offs.

Users have to manually carry over what they’ve learned, synthesize across tabs and sources, and re-establish context every time they search.

Chima talked about this fragmented search experience in a previous article that you should definitely read.

Google's attempt to fix this is to engineer a system that remembers what you’ve already searched, predicts what you’ll need next, and walks you through complex decisions with AI support.

That system is AI Mode. 

Announced publicly in Early 2025, AI Mode builds on AI Overviews but adds persistent memory and reasoning. It guides users through multi-step journeys by tracking query history and adapting to evolving context.