Google announced five changes to how the search engine will show links and citations within its AI Search features – AI Mode and AI Overviews. These changes aim to make it “easy for you to connect with authentic voices and explore useful information across the web,” Google’s Hema Budaraju, VP, Product Management, wrote.
Here are the five changes that are rolling out in AI Mode and AI Overviews:
(1) Suggested angles at the end of the AI responses. Google may show suggestions for where to go next at the end of many AI responses within AI Mode or AI Overviews. This “section links to unique articles or in-depth analyses on different facets of your topic, making it easy to satisfy your curiosity,” Google explained.
Here is what it looks like:
(2) Easier access to your news subscriptions. Google will highlight links from your news subscriptions in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google said this makes it easier for “you can quickly access the content you trust and get more value from your subscriptions.” Google added in its early testing that searchers were “significantly more likely to click links that were labeled as their subscriptions.”
Publishers can enable subscription linking using this documentation.
Here is what it looks like:
(3) Social media and online discussions include creator’s name, handle and community name. When Google’s AI features cite social media or online discussions, Google will not just include the name of the website, but also the creator’s name and handle – along with the community name.
This is to make it easier to understand these responses are from firsthand sources. We saw Google testing this earlier.
Here is what it looks like:
(4) More links, next to relevant text. Google also said it will show more links directly within the AI responses, right next to the relevant text it was citing. This should encourage searchers to dig deeper into those websites because those citations and links are right next to the related text.
Here is what it looks like:
(5) Hover over inline links. Google’s AI features will give you a quick preview of a website when you hover your cursor over an inline link in the AI feature, AI Mode or AI Overviews, on desktop. We saw Google testing this in February and I feel this is a better method to encourage searchers to click over.
The information in the overlay includes name of the website or title of the web page and maybe more useful information.
Here is what it looks like:
Why we care. Google wrote, “We’ll keep testing, learning and improving these features based on what works best for you.”
These changes, in my opinion, should increase the chances of searchers clicking from the AI experiences to the cited page. And it also shows Google is making changes to try to improve the overall ecosystem. The big question is, will these changes be enough?