Google’s 20th Anniversary: What Search Could Look Like by 2038

2018 marks Google’s 20th anniversary. Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s creation has come a long way since its early days in 1998, but the search engine is constantly evolving and far from its final form. Ben Gomes, Google’s head of Search, has shared his vision for where Search goes next. So what could Google look like by 2038, another 20 years from now?

Ben Gomes laid out the future of the search engine in a post on Google’s blog on Monday, September 24, 2018. On the menu: activity cards, collections, Google Discover, and a bigger role for images, among other things.

Gomes acknowledged that search isn’t perfect, but said Google is determined to make it better every day.

Google keeps reinventing itself, as its many algorithm updates and new features show. When it started, its index held about 25 million pages; today, it covers hundreds of billions. Over the years, Google has built a dominant position, and with Search now available in more than 150 languages across more than 190 countries, the company has no intention of stopping there.

What Will Google Look Like in 2038?

If Ben Gomes is right, Google’s engineers won’t be running out of work anytime soon. Here are the main changes on the way.

Google, Tomorrow’s Social Network?

One goal is to offer users more personalized content tied to their interests.

Stories, the format that has taken over social media, are part of the plan for delivering this new kind of content.

Introduced by Snapchat in 2013, stories went on to conquer Facebook and Instagram and may soon come to Google. According to Cathy Edwards, director of engineering for Google Images, the format, especially popular with younger users, will initially focus on celebrities and athletes. Google sees stories as a new way to discover content, since they’ll link to articles covering the topics featured. We’ll see.

From Feed to Discover

With 800 million monthly users already, Google’s news feed is set to grow further, with content even more closely matched to each user’s interests. For the occasion, the Feed is being renamed Discover.

Images Take Center Stage

Google also plans to strengthen visual search, using artificial intelligence to better identify what’s in a photo. For site owners, that makes image SEO worth taking seriously.

Quick Answers and Long-Term Projects

Some searches need an instant answer; others are part of a longer project. Google has taken note and now lets users save useful results in Collections.

For example, planning your next vacation? If you keep coming back to deals, tips, and travel guides for your destination, you’ll be able to save them to a dedicated collection and return to them whenever you like.

Google and SEO

When it comes to SEO, there’s no doubt we’ll need to adapt to these changes. It’s hard to predict exactly what the impact will be, though. As the saying goes, wait and see. We’ll know for sure in 2038.

Need Help With Your Website’s SEO?

Référenceur is a French-speaking digital marketing agency from Belgium and Luxembourg that has been keeping up with Google’s changes for more than 15 years. We work with U.S. businesses remotely. Request a free assessment.

Where things stand in 2026: Discover is still part of the Google app and has become a meaningful traffic source for many publishers. AI-powered visual search lives on in Google Lens, now built into Google Search, and the stories format continues as Web Stories.