Google continues to work through its update to-do list. Shortly after announcing the launch of its long-awaited universal shopping cart, the company has made another of the features it previewed during its last Google I/O developer conference available to the public: an evolution of its AI Overviews and AI Mode format that, in principle, gives external media outlets a bit more room to play.
Specifically, in its announcement Google outlines four major groups of new features designed to enrich the way people search with AI. None of them is especially disruptive, but they do offer a welcome twist on what we have seen so far.
The first involves a “significant increase” in the number of embedded links in the automated responses it provides, intended to help users “dig deeper into a topic right when they are reading about it.” Google has explained that from now on it will lean more heavily into this format, showing these kinds of links more frequently and in a more prominent position within the responses. It is undoubtedly a small concession to the media outlets, blogs, and creators whose content its AI draws from to generate its answers, and one that will be appreciated in the context of the widespread drop in organic traffic the ecosystem has been experiencing for just over a year.
Google also explained that when there are only “one or two official websites” it can rely on to answer a query, a new format will be used to highlight those links in a dedicated section at the top of the response, along with information explaining why they are being shown.
One of the most eye-catching new features is that of featured carousels, which will appear for news queries in AI Overviews and will also prioritize the sources users have marked as preferred.
Another of the newly announced features is the inclusion of related links, similar to what we do with the related articles you will find at the end of posts like this one. The idea is to give users the option to read content connected to their query, helping them learn more about a topic or discover new angles related to the search they made.
The last of the announced features is only available in the United States, Canada, and India, but it is a very interesting one. It is designed to give more visibility to influencers whose video content appears in AI Mode by displaying the names of creators and publishers that link directly to their search profiles. “These profiles offer a quick way to get to know creators and their work more broadly, providing even more context.”, Google explained.
That said, in addition to the geographic restriction, to benefit from this feature content creators must have a minimum follower count (YouTube: 10,000, Instagram: 10,000, X: 10,000, TikTok: 10,000), be of legal age, and comply with Google’s content policies.
Image: ChatGPT
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