Google Search's AI Mode can now help you book restaurant reservations, or at least get you to the booking page.

On Thursday, the tech giant announced that its AI Mode has new "new agentic capabilities," including helping users book restaurant reservations, with more to come. AI mode is already available in the U.S., the UK, and India, and Google said it's now expanding to more than 180 countries and territories, though only in English, for now.

While some outlets have reported that "Google Search’s new AI Mode can now book reservations for you," that's not quite true yet.

When you're in AI Mode on Google Search, you can describe the kind of dinner reservation you're looking for, including party size, dietary restrictions, date, time, cuisine, etc., and Google's underlying AI models will fan out across the internet and create a list of restaurants with available reservations that fit your criteria. When you've found a reservation that works, AI Mode will take you to the booking page.

The ability to streamline reservations in AI Mode soft-launched in Labs, Google's testing ground for new AI features, and it's only available to AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. However, it's a sign that Google is working on launching more widespread agentic features soon. The announcement said users will soon be able to book event tickets and make local service appointments. Google is working with partners like OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, and Booksy to help curate these recommendations.

AI Mode does the work of finding you restaurant reservations based on specific criteria.
Credit: Google

The agentic part of this new feature, meaning the part of the feature that uses advanced AI models to take action on your behalf, is the research element. The feature still won't do the actual booking for you. Users will have to manually confirm the booking in a third-party tool like Resy.

Of course, you could just go to Resy or OpenTable and search for reservations that way, but this feature searches across all different platforms and the entire web, and pulls up the reservation times.

The advent of the agentic web promises to automate tedious tasks and research, offloading it to our personalized AI assistants. If AI tools can deliver on this promise, the technology could restructure how we interact with the internet. This is an early glimmer of how agentic AI is taking shape online.

If you're a Google AI Ultra subscriber for $250 a month, you can try agentic reservation booking in Search Labs by clicking on "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode."

Vicky

Figuring out how to watch the entire NFL season in 2025 is complicated. But it gets really frustrating when you live in a different region than your favorite team. Watching out-of-market games for any sport is no walk in the park, but for the NFL, it's an excruciating battle — particularly for your wallet.

Before you pull the trigger on any pay TV provider or streaming service, you may want to check to see what games are considered in-market and out-of-market for your region. You don't want to drop $60 on an annual Paramount+ plan or splurge on the new $199 Fox One streaming platform only to find out the games you want to watch are blacked out.

What are in-market vs. out-of-market NFL games?

In-market games are basically your home team broadcasts, or the games geographically closest to you. These are the games you'll regularly find on CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoons. Out-of-market games are those only available outside of the designated broadcast region you are in. These games are blacked out (unless they are national broadcasts) in favor of in-market games. For instance, I am a Baltimore Ravens fan living in Nashville, Tenn. The Tennessee Titans are my local team, which means their games are in-market for me on Sundays. If both the Titans and Ravens are playing in the 1:00 p.m. time slot on Sunday, I will only be able to watch the Titans. The Ravens will be blacked out, as they are considered out-of-market.

To find out which games are in your local market each week, check out 506sports.com.

How to watch out-of-market NFL games

So, you live in a different region than the team(s) you want to watch. That means the usual streaming services that broadcast NFL games — ESPN, Paramount+, YouTube TV, etc. — aren't going to work for you. With those, you'll only be able to watch in-market teams and national broadcasts. Womp womp.

In this case, the only legal way you can watch out-of-market games is via NFL Sunday Ticket. Sure, there are plenty of bootleg broadcasts floating around the internet, but we can't in good conscience recommend those. NFL Sunday Ticket is the league's own premium sports package that broadcasts NFL regular season games that are unavailable on your local channels. It carries regional Sunday afternoon games on Fox and CBS, specifically. You can get NFL Sunday Ticket as an individual channel on YouTube or as an add-on to YouTube TV.

How much does NFL Sunday Ticket cost?

I won't sugarcoat it for you: NFL Sunday ticket is outrageously expensive unless you're brand new to the service. Through Aug. 31, newbies can score NFL Sunday Ticket as an individual channel on YouTube or as a YouTube TV add-on for $276 total for the regular season (8 payments of $34.50 per month). For returning customers, it'll cost $480 total as an individual channel (8 payments of $60 per month) or $378 total as a YouTube TV add-on (8 payments of $47.25 per month). Students, military personnel, first responders, medical professionals, and teachers can all get discounted rates (see below).

Starting in September, there will also be month-to-month plans available. For new users, it'll cost $85 per month on the monthly plan, while returning customers will pay $115 per month for the YouTube TV add-on and $145 per month for the individual channel.

Here's a breakdown for you:

Season pass (8-month subscription)

• $276 for new users ($34.50/month)

• $376 for returning users bundled with YouTube TV

• $480 for returning users without YouTube TV

• $119 for students who can verify their eligibility

• $198 for Military & Veterans, First Responders, Medical Community, and Teachers

Month-to-month

• $85 per month for new users

• $115 per month for returning users bundled with YouTube TV

• $145 per month for returning users without YouTube TV

How to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket

To get NFL Sunday Ticket, head over to YouTube.com/NFL and a prompt will pop up with the details to sign up. If you don't see the prompt, just click on "get NFL Sunday Ticket" to the right of the NFL logo. You'll see options to sign up for both YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket, NFL Sunday Ticket only, or the Student Plan. If you want to sign up for the military, first responder, medical professional, or teacher rate, you'll have to go through id.me.

Vicky

In the mood for a visual treat to brighten your day? Then look no further than the teaser trailer for the upcoming animated film Arco, from French director Ugo Bienvenu and distributor Neon.

The teaser is just one minute long, but it's packed with lush forests, towering sci-fi landscapes, and surreal space imagery, not to mention its fair share of dazzling rainbows.

That's because rainbows are key to Arco. The film's 10-year-old protagonist Arco uses one to accidentally time travel from his peaceful, distant future to the year 2075. There, he discovers a world in peril, but he also meets a young girl named Iris. The two form a fast friendship and, with the help of Iris' robot caretaker Mikki, they set out on a quest to save the world and get Arco home.

Arco is set to play at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, but it's already had a busy festival year. It had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, then went on to win the Cristal for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Could we be looking at a contender for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature?

The film is originally in French, with a voice cast including Little Women's Louis Garrel and Anatomy of a Fall's Swann Arlaud. The English dub features a strong voice cast in its own right, including Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Flea, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, and Andy Samberg. Portman also produced the film.

Arco hits select theaters Nov. 14.

Vicky