Google has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning "to find things on the Internet." Soon, Google might just tell you what's on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won't show you the 10 blue links at all—Gemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.

 

This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.

 

With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it's only the start of Google's plans for AI search.

 

Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It's launching as an opt-in feature via Google's Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far. The model uses "advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities" to build a response to your search, which can include web summaries, Knowledge Graph content, and shopping data. It's essentially a bigger, more complex AI Overview.

 

As Google has previously pointed out, many searches are questions rather than a string of keywords. For those kinds of queries, an AI response could theoreticallyprovide an answer more quickly than a list of 10 blue links. However, that relies on the AI response being useful and accurate, something that often still eludes generative AI systems like Gemini.

Google insists this is not the end of web search, saying that helping people discover content online "remains central" to its approach. Indeed, the examples Google shows include links and citations from around the web similar to AI Overviews. However, you can't just scroll down in AI Mode to see organic results. Instead, AI Mode is designed to operate in a conversational way, allowing you to refine your search or ask follow-up questions.

 

 

If this sounds like something you absolutely do not want, you can safely ignore it for now. The experimental feature is only available for Google One AI Premium subscribers, who pay $20 per month for access to Google's best LLMs. This could be an indication that generating these search pages is extremely costly even for a company that gives away so much AI processing for free. Still, Google's AI efforts move fast, and you could find yourself confronted with AI Mode soon. It only took a few months for the Search Generative Experience to graduate from Labs as AI Overviews.

 

Google notes that it still has a lot of work to do before AI Mode is ready for prime time—it's a dramatic departure for a core part of the Google experience, after all. Google says the AI-only searches might not always be able to offer a good rundown. In those instances, it will fall back to showing you traditional links to websites that can answer your questions. AI Mode may also appear to take on a persona or form an opinion like a chatbot while it's still in development.

 

The feedback from the public test will help Google address AI Mode's shortcomings and make rapid changes to the experience. If you want to check out AI Mode, you can join the waitlist in Search Labs. If not, it's probably only a matter of time before you have no choice. No one was exactly clamoring for AI Overviews, but that hasn't stopped Google from pushing it to ever more searches.

 

Source: https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/03/google-is-expanding-ai-overviews-and-testing-ai-only-search-results/

Google has provided a new update regarding AI overviews:

I hope they make this optional but, if they're going to force it on everyone, I think it's time to jump ship to DuckDuckGo...

They say they want it easy to click on sites, and maybe they will.

 

Now if the AI has already provided the answer to the query, then why would somebody click anything after that.

 

Again, AI is just a nice way to describe non-attributing content scrapers.

 

jmo

I hope they make this optional but, if they're going to force it on everyone, I think it's time to jump ship to DuckDuckGo...

It’s possible to deactivate it, but it won’t be for every single search.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/13572151?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

 

Tips:

 

• You'll find the Search Labs icon next to AI Overviews when you’ve opted into the “AI Overviews and more” experiment in Search Labs.
  
• If you don't find the Search Labs icon next to AI Overviews you don't have this experiment turned on, you can refer to AI Overviews in Search.
  

You can also install these two browser extensions to remove it.

• Hide Google AI Overviews: This Chrome extension removes AI-generated summaries from your Google search results.
  
  • Bye Bye, Google AI: Another Chrome extension designed to block AI overviews.
     
    

A new chart has been released showcasing how AI overviews has been effecting some website’s traffic thus far.

 

 

Which means, it’s a good idea to diversify your traffic sources.

Honestly, ChatGPT and Google AI answer the majority of things I am Googling. I'd prefer more direct linking for further research (such as today, Google answered a question but I had to dig a bit deeper to find a reputable link for Google's recommendation.) From a user standpoint, I like the user friendliness. I think one thing AI is not going to be able to capture is the community element. For instance, AI isn't going to rant about the latest RuneScape update with me like my friends would.

 

This decline in user interaction could be a positive for forums as people look to expand their search with true collaboration.

Honestly, ChatGPT and Google AI answer the majority of things I am Googling. I'd prefer more direct linking for further research (such as today, Google answered a question but I had to dig a bit deeper to find a reputable link for Google's recommendation.) From a user standpoint, I like the user friendliness. I think one thing AI is not going to be able to capture is the community element. For instance, AI isn't going to rant about the latest RuneScape update with me like my friends would.

 

This decline in user interaction could be a positive for forums as people look to expand their search with true collaboration.

I don’t see this shift benefiting forums unless AI-generated overviews include more direct links to original sources. If users can’t find specific information because AI summaries exclude certain details, and those sites don’t appear in search results, it will be nearly impossible for forums to attract traffic and new users. Many websites have already suffered from ‘zero-click’ searches, where users get answers without ever visiting the source. Without better integration of direct links, forums will struggle to bring in new users, and even regular websites will face challenges. The next few years will be rough unless websites diversify their traffic sources.

 

AI overviews is slicing traffic across the board for many websites since it's been rolled out.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2Apr 2 by Cpvr

I think when google starts seeing their advertising revenue from legitimate websites drop proportionately to the ai scraped results increasing, they my be changing their tune. Why pay for keywords when the only visitor will be Google AI pre-answering client queries. And why pay for ad impressions that show up on websites from Google when nobody see's them anymore.

So the question then begs: Do we go black behind a login wall? or just sit tight.

I think when google starts seeing their advertising revenue from legitimate websites drop proportionately to the ai scraped results increasing, they my be changing their tune. Why pay for keywords when the only visitor will be Google AI pre-answering client queries. And why pay for ad impressions that show up on websites from Google when nobody see's them anymore.

Its a race right now, and there is an existential threat to Google that if someone developers a search portal that makes their answers easier and faster, then Google will ultimately lose its web dominance.

 

As a user, I objectively would prefer to have answers presented to me (as long as it's accurate, of course). Having to click through 10 websites and read and investigate and search is objectively harder.

As a user, I objectively would prefer to have answers presented to me (as long as it's accurate, of course). Having to click through 10 websites and read and investigate and search is objectively harder.

I can understand that. But personally I prefer to go thru ten websites than to be fooled by AI that is maybe 60% accurate.

 

I have been playing around with Google AI on search queries. It takes a query properly stringed together, and one more click on that very tiny icon to get to see three search results, and then you get to click on one of them. And none of them seem to be near what I am asking.

 

OR...

 

I prefer to review a page or two to see the likelihood of one of the websites attracting me to it. If I don't, I reform my query and try again.

 

But that's just me. I hate the way AI uses your data, and then obfuscates the links that you have to go find. Just give me the danged SERPS, and quit feeding me non-attributed content that is scraped from who knows where. (yes, I have a personal issue with all that lol)

I can understand that. But personally I prefer to go thru ten websites than to be fooled by AI that is maybe 60% accurate.

 

I have been playing around with Google AI on search queries. It takes a query properly stringed together, and one more click on that very tiny icon to get to see three search results, and then you get to click on one of them. And none of them seem to be near what I am asking.

 

OR...

 

I prefer to review a page or two to see the likelihood of one of the websites attracting me to it. If I don't, I reform my query and try again.

 

But that's just me. I hate the way AI uses your data, and then obfuscates the links that you have to go find. Just give me the danged SERPS, and quit feeding me non-attributed content that is scraped from who knows where. (yes, I have a personal issue with all that lol)

In no way am I comfortable with AI scraping our intellectual property and hallucinating answers back, so there are some serious other issues with AI. But on the sole topic of asking for a question and getting an immediate answer, AI overviews and AI summarizing results can be powerful.

I can understand that. But personally I prefer to go thru ten websites than to be fooled by AI that is maybe 60% accurate.

 

I have been playing around with Google AI on search queries. It takes a query properly stringed together, and one more click on that very tiny icon to get to see three search results, and then you get to click on one of them. And none of them seem to be near what I am asking.

 

OR...

 

I prefer to review a page or two to see the likelihood of one of the websites attracting me to it. If I don't, I reform my query and try again.

 

But that's just me. I hate the way AI uses your data, and then obfuscates the links that you have to go find. Just give me the danged SERPS, and quit feeding me non-attributed content that is scraped from who knows where. (yes, I have a personal issue with all that lol)

That might be so, but if you read through 10 websites, what are the chances they are all the same and 100% accurate? If I need something quickly, I end up asking my question to ChatGPT. Time is money.

In no way am I comfortable with AI scraping our intellectual property and hallucinating answers back, so there are some serious other issues with AI. But on the sole topic of asking for a question and getting an immediate answer, AI overviews and AI summarizing results can be powerful.

You can block Google’s crawlers from accessing your content via robots.txt, which will prevent them from scraping and summarizing your intellectual property. However, keep in mind that blocking crawlers this way will also prevent your entire site from being indexed and appearing in search results, which could affect your site’s visibility.

 

The choice and options are there. It does suck, but we have to adapt to survive in this new era of search or we’ll luck out.

 

https://www.intrepidonline.com/blog/seo/sge-google-block-not-block/

 

One major question is whether an organization should block their site in some way to prevent their site content from showing in the SGE answer.

 

Answer: To put it bluntly, there is no easy way to do this without harming your site. To remove your content from AI Overviews, you need to block Googlebot itself (not just Google-Extended), which would result in your site no longer ranking and losing all of your organic traffic from Google.

 

If there is content that you don’t want in AI Overviews, and you don’t want it to rank either, we recommend blocking those individual pages. If you have several pages you wish to block, create a subfolder containing all of them; this folder can easily be blocked in robots.txt without impacting the entire site.

 

To clarify, let’s look at where Google gets the information it uses to generate AI Overview answers.

[HEADING=1]How do Google’s AI Overviews get information?[/HEADING]

AI Overviews don’t use a special user agent to crawl and fetch data; it relies on Googlebot. When you consider that Google already has all of this information thanks to Googlebot’s continual crawling of sites, it makes sense.

 

Additionally, relying on Googlebot limits the control websites can place over how the overviews gain information. If users could block Google from using their information, their AI tools would potentially be quickly hamstrung and couldn’t possibly work as well as Google would like. By relying on Googlebot, Google can acquire as much information as possible without fear of missing out, as blocking Googlebot entirely would mean your site would lose organic traffic and rankings.

 

This ultimately means that AI Overviews can surface any information about your site that Googlebot can normally access. The only way to hide information is to block Googlebot from accessing those pages via a robots.txt rule.

[HEADING=1]What if we have proprietary information on our site that we don't want available to the general public?[/HEADING]

Proprietary information would not typically be available on a company’s public website. AI Overviews are powered by the information that Googlebot crawls. The only information it factors in is what you put on your website and allow to be crawled (plus anything others write about your brand, but we’re not addressing that here).

 

Again, if you have content on specific pages you don’t want to be seen by Google, you can block Googlebot from accessing those specific pages through robots.txt rules that prevent crawling.

 

Be very careful with this, though. Double-check to make sure those pages aren’t indexed—if they are, and they are ranking, you need to put a noindex tag on them first and wait for Google to remove them. Once that’s done, you’re safe to put in the robots.txt block. Remember, this will only apply to those specific pages, and you don’t want to do this to your whole site or your important pages.

Edit: they’re now working on implementing more links to sites via their ai overviews!

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Cpvr

More seo updates regarding the AI overviews:

 

 

 

 

Now that AI overviews seems to be rolled out fully in google search, how’s everyone feeling about it? Is your google search traffic on the rise or decline?

 

Have you seen better results when searching for things on google or worst?