Google Images Turns 25 and Gets a Pinterest-Style Makeover
A scrollable image feed, personalised collections, and AI-generated pictures inside search results are all coming to Google Images in the next few weeks.
Key points
- Google Images is turning 25 this week and replacing its plain search homepage with a personalised, scrollable image gallery.
- The new feed updates in real time and tailors itself to each signed-in user's interests.
- Signed-in desktop users in the United States will see the new homepage roll out over the coming weeks, in English only at launch.
- Google Search will also gain the ability to generate images inside AI Overviews, the AI-written answer boxes at the top of search results, using a model called Imagen 2 Lite.
- How Google will stop that feature from producing AI images for sensitive topics like current events is not yet clear.
Google Images used to greet you with basically nothing: a search bar and a lot of white space. That's about to change.
To mark the platform's 25th anniversary, Google is swapping that blank homepage for a scrollable feed of pictures it thinks you'll enjoy, sourced from across the web and updated in real time. Think Pinterest or Imgur: a dense visual grid you can browse before you've typed a single word.
You'll also be able to save pictures into collections, sitting as tabs above the feed so you can find them again later. Handy if you're gathering kitchen tile ideas or tracking down that sofa you saw last Tuesday.
The new homepage rolls out over the coming weeks for signed-in desktop users in the United States, in English. No word yet on when it arrives for everyone else.
Should users be worried about AI-generated images appearing in search results?
Not immediately, but it's worth knowing they're coming. Google is adding AI image generation directly into AI Overviews, using a model called Imagen 2 Lite. We first covered Imagen 2 Lite on 14 July 2026, back when questions about AI image safeguards were already live on this beat. Google's demo prompts use phrases like "help me visualise" or "create a visual", for example to picture different sofas in your living room before you buy one.
That part sounds genuinely useful. The open question is guardrails. The Verge reported that Google hasn't explained which prompts trigger image generation or how it will prevent the tool from producing AI-made pictures for topics where that could cause real harm: breaking news, political events. We'll update this story when Google answers those questions.
For now, the practical upshot is simple. If you use Google Images on a desktop and you're signed in, expect a livelier homepage soon. And if you see a generated image pop up in a search answer, remember it was made by AI, not found on the web. That distinction matters more than Google's announcement lets on.
