Google has announced the expansion of its AI Overviews feature to six new countries following its initial launch in the United States this May.
The feature, which uses AI to summarize search results, is now rolling out in the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.
This expansion comes amid ongoing debates about the impact of AI overviews on referral traffic.
While Google claims the feature drives more website visits, industry observers remain skeptical about its long-term effects on content creators and publishers.
New Features & User Behavior
Google has introduced several updates to the AI Overviews feature:
- A new link display on desktop and mobile to showcase relevant websites
- Experimental in-text links within AI Overviews
- A save function for specific AI Overviews
- An option to simplify the language in some summaries
The company reports that users ask longer questions and explore more complex subjects with AI Overviews. However, independent verification of these claims is yet to be made available.
Potential Implications For Publishers
While Google states that clicks from AI Overviews are “higher quality” and users spend more time on visited sites, the full impact on publishers remains unclear.
Adding in-text links and the new link display may affect users’ interactions with search results and navigation to external websites.
Some SEO experts have expressed concerns about the potential for AI-generated summaries to reduce the need for users to click through to sources.
Google’s approach to balancing AI assistance with driving traffic to websites will be closely monitored.
Global Rollout & User Reception
The gradual rollout across six new countries will test the feature’s effectiveness in different languages and cultural contexts.
Google claims positive feedback from initial testing, but how users in these markets will respond remains to be seen.
Expanding Google’s AI Overviews marks another step in this ongoing search transformation.
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