Google’s controversial AI Overviews are making a big international expansion
AIO doubles down with new features and new countries.
JoriPress
- Google is tweaking how AI Overviews present links to relevant source material.
- Some new tests try out the ability to save AIO results, and to request simpler versions of them.
- Access to AIO is expanding to six new nations over the weeks to come.
To say that Google’s attempt at integrating artificial intelligence into Search has had a mixed reception would be putting it mildly. Especially early on, AI Overviews (AIO) struggled with accuracy, sometimes showing users dangerously incorrect information, and while Google’s been working to limit where AIO gets its data from, we’ve also noticed the company downplaying AIO in Search results overall. Despite that bumpy road, Google is far from throwing in the towel, and today announces not just some new AIO features, but also the expansion of its availability to new nations.
The tweak you’ll probably notice first concerns how AIO displays links. Right now we’ve got these big, bulky boxes that appear under relevant sections of the AIO summary. Starting today, Google will begin showing a link icon over to the right of AIO passages. The company’s also considering just doing things the old-fashioned way with some classic inline links, which you might see as part of a limited test. Both changes are intended to help drive user engagement with these external resources.
