Google's AI Mode is the New QWERTY

Google's "Click to enter AI Mode" is the new QWERTY keyboard layout.

Deliberately inefficient friction that slows down an interface we're not ready to handle at full speed. Christopher Sholes rearranged his typewriter keyboard in 1873 to slow typists down because the mechanical hammers kept jamming when people typed too fast.

I taught myself to type on my grandmother's old Smith Corona growing up. That machine physically demonstrated why QWERTY exists.

Each keystroke required deliberate force, and typing too fast meant tangled metal arms. We accept QWERTY's inefficiency because it solved a mechanical problem. Google's artificial friction solves a business problem.

Similarly, Google makes you click to enter “AI Mode”. ChatGPT requires switching to voice mode. Gemini has its own activation ritual. These are speed bumps.

The Query Modality Matrix Reveals Why We Need Speed Bumps

Garrett Sussman from the iPullRank agency and I were speaking the other day about what it will take for AI Mode to really take off (follow Garrett here.)

The discussion led to a new framework: The Query Modality Matrix plots searches across two axes. Simple versus complex vertically, auditory versus visual horizontally. With us humans at the center.

Stock prices and weather sit in the simple-auditory quadrant where AI excels. Recipe photos and outfit ideas cluster in the simple-visual space where users need to see options. Tax strategy and medical diagnosis occupy the complex-auditory zone. Home renovation and art investment require both complexity and visual assessment.

We're stuck in a text-visual paradigm. Type a query, read results. We're racing toward auditory-visual computing. Speak your intent, see visual responses, hear explanations. The matrix shows why Google can't flip everyone to AI mode, not yet, at least. The interface hasn't caught up to the capability.

This is one of those areas where again, I think AI breaks Jakob’s Law:

This is Why There is Now A Battle for Browsers

The browser remains critical territory. Whoever controls the browser interface controls how humans interact with AI.

I’ve figured a way to use voice for most of my input at this point (thanks to Apple Voice notes on my watch and Monologue on my desktop).

The browser remains critical territory. Whoever controls the browser interface controls how humans interact with AI. Hence, the Browser Battleground brewing covered last week here:

Output remains trapped in dedicated AI modes. Voice in ChatGPT. Audio responses in Gemini. Each platform requires its own activation sequence. We're living in a cobbled-together present where every AI interaction requires conscious mode-switching.

The browser remains the primary method for finding and interacting with information.

The matrix above shows we're headed toward something much bigger. There's a difference when I look up a destination in Google and want to see the map versus when I'm actually driving and I want to hear the directions. These different modalities are going to expand quickly.

Meta recently demonstrated brain-to-keyboard technology that lets people think their way through typing, achieving what previously required implants. Neuralink has already shown similar capabilities. These modalities start to work together quickly.

Yesterday, Alterego announced a wearable that captures sub-vocal speech, allowing you to speak inaudibly under your breath while the machine captures your words. The company claims they're not using brain waves. If real, it's another leap toward seamless human-AI communication at the speed of thought.

Build for Bidirectional, Modeless Interaction

Plot your important searches on the Query Modality Matrix. Take your top 50 search queries and place them on the simple-complex and auditory-visual axes.

Visual-simple searches like "haircut styles" need rich media and shopping integration. Complex-auditory queries like "tax strategy" require comprehensive content that AI can synthesize and explain to individuals.

Remember, in this new reality, you don’t get to control the exact copy. You are feeding a machine your content so that it can synthesize with other content.

Prepare for bidirectional interfaces. Auditory input with visual response, visual input with spoken explanation, seamless switching based on query complexity.

No mode buttons or activation sequences. Companies building for always-on, modeless AI interaction don’t have to solve the interface, but they do need to manage their data in a way that supports both.

Build distinct content strategies based on quadrant placement. Visual searches require traditional SEO with image galleries, video content, and schema markup. Auditory searches need detailed explanations and structured data that AI can parse and recombine. Your position determines whether you're fighting for traditional SERP features or optimizing for AI synthesis.

Track platform specialization by quadrant. Simple-visual searches happen on Instagram and Pinterest. Complex-visual moves to YouTube. Simple-auditory goes to voice assistants. Complex-auditory becomes the domain of ChatGPT and Claude.

Google serves all four quadrants simultaneously while specialized platforms dominate specific zones. This is what Google is trying to SLOW DOWN!

The Query Modality Matrix Can Predict Search Platform Winners

Google can't maintain AI mode behind one click much longer.

Perplexity and ChatGPT default to conversational search, and they both have Browsers launched or on the way. Every day Google delays full AI integration, users develop habits on other platforms.

The real challenge is economic.

Google generated $198.1 billion from search ads in 2024. Searches in the visual half of the Query Modality Matrix drive most of this revenue through shopping ads, local listings, and display advertising. AI responses that directly answer auditory queries eliminate clicks to websites, destroying the pay-per-click model.

Visual search provides Google's defensive moat. AI can't replace the human need to see products, compare options visually, or understand spatial relationships. Google prioritizes AI Overviews for informational queries, while maintaining traditional results for commercial searches.

They're segmenting the matrix to protect revenue while optimizing for their next UX.

The QWERTY keyboard outlived its original purpose by a century.

Its time is ending.

That "AI Mode" button will disappear much faster.