Google once defined the internet experience. Type a query. Scan the blue links. Click through. Find what you need. That simple flow feels distant now. At its I/O event this year, the company pushed an intelligent search box front and center. Traditional results get buried. AI summaries and chat interfaces dominate. TechCrunch captured the reaction. One commenter called the announcement “the best advertisement for letting people know it’s time to get a different search engine.” Executives at Google described it as the biggest upgrade to the search box in 25 years. Users saw something else. A product that no longer prioritizes the open web. The shift arrives amid broader problems. Publishers report steep traffic drops. Google itself acknowledged in court filings that the open web sits in rapid decline. The Verge reported on the admission. Searches in Safari have fallen for the first time in over two decades, tied in part to AI tools that answer questions without sending clicks.…