Dynamic visual layout (DVL) is a class of generative user interface which acts as an ephemeral information substrate.
For two decades, SEO has been about fitting information into layouts. The blog post template. The product page schema. The FAQ accordion. The listicle format. We optimized content for containers that existed before the content did.
Google just inverted this.
The Inversion
Dynamic Visual Layout (DVL) is a class of generative user interface that acts as an ephemeral information substrate. The layout no longer exists before the query. It precipitates from the information itself, momentarily, then dissolves.
This is not a new SERP feature. It’s the end of the SERP as a fixed architecture.
Take this prompt as an example:
"show me how cross-encoders work when they score query-document pairs to find best matches"Gemini 3 doesn’t retrieve a page about cross-encoders. It codes a custom layout and an interactive experience—live, in response to your query.
The interface is generated. It exists for this moment, for this question, for you. There is no URL. There is nothing to index. There is nothing to optimize for.
The container has become ephemeral. Only the information persists.
How It Works
Gemini is great at writing code and has strong agentic capabilities.
Tool access. The model can invoke image generation, web search, and other capabilities. It pulls from the web but is not bound to reproduce what it finds.
System instructions. Detailed specifications guide layout, coding standards, and error handling. The model knows how to build, not just retrieve.
Post-processing. Outputs are refined before rendering. The interface is quality-controlled in real-time.
The result: for any prompt—a single word or elaborate instructions—the model generates a fully custom interface. A physics simulator. An interactive diagram. A gallery with contextual annotations. A planning tool. Whatever the information requires.
What This Means for Search
Consider what becomes obsolete:
The infographic you commissioned. The interactive calculator you built. The comparison chart you spent weeks refining. The explainer video you produced. These were all attempts to make information more accessible by crafting superior containers.
DVL generates the optimal container on demand. Your static artifact competes against a bespoke creation, tailored to the user’s exact query, generated in seconds.
This isn’t about AI summaries cannibalizing your content. That was the 2023 concern. This is about AI generating experiences that transcend what static content can offer.
The Information Advantage
If the layout dissolves, what remains?
The information itself. Its accuracy. Its depth. Its structure. Its relationships.
DVL draws from web content. It searches, retrieves, synthesizes. The sources still matter—but not for their presentation. Only for their substance.
This suggests a strategic pivot:
From formatting to structure. Well-organized information that models can parse, connect, and recombine. Not information imprisoned in beautiful layouts, but information liberated from layout entirely.
From artifacts to knowledge. The interactive calculator is obsolete. The underlying logic it embodies is not. Document the principles, not just the implementation.
From pages to propositions. Discrete, verifiable claims. Clear relationships between concepts. Information architecture over visual architecture.
The Ephemeral Substrate
DVL treats the interface as an ephemeral substrate—a temporary surface onto which information crystallizes, takes shape, serves its purpose, and dissipates.
There is no persistent page to rank. No stable URL to acquire links for. No layout to test and iterate. The substrate forms anew for each query.
This is orthogonal to everything we’ve built.
For twenty years, SEO assumed the page was the unit of optimization. The page had structure. The page had measurable attributes. The page persisted.
DVL has no page. There is only the information, temporarily rendered.
Strategic Response
Three postures emerge:
Become source material. If DVL synthesizes from web content, be the content worth synthesizing. Not the prettiest content—the most accurate, most complete, most structurally clear. The model needs reliable inputs; be reliable.
Own what generation cannot replicate. First-party data. Primary research. Proprietary methodology. Lived experience. These cannot be generated; they can only be sourced. The premium on original information increases.
Shift the frame. If transactional and informational queries increasingly resolve in ephemeral interfaces, redirected commercial intent and brand queries gain relative value. The queries that demand you specifically, not information about you generically.
The Trajectory
DVL is currently limited to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S. It’s experimental. It’s slow. It sometimes fails.
None of that matters. The trajectory is clear.
Google has demonstrated that the search interface itself can be generated. The layout is no longer a constraint; it’s a variable. The model decides what interface serves the information best—and builds it.
This is where search is going. Not to better summaries. Not to more AI Overviews. To generated interfaces, ephemeral and bespoke, with no fixed structure to optimize against.
The layout fits the information now.
Everything that assumed the opposite is subject to revision.
Quick question.
Are you still prompt tracking and using tools for daily scraping of AI Mode and ChatGPT layouts?
Awwww… cute.
And pointless.
It’s time to embrace the probabilistic nature of large language models.
Leave a Reply