As Google rolls out AI summaries to six new countries, it's also changing how it displays citations in the generated summaries: Instead of placing the relevant webpage directly in the AI-generated summary, Google is adding a new display to the right of the response that displays cited webpages more prominently.
The new format is rolling out starting today and will appear on mobile when you select the site icon that appears in the top-right corner of the AI summary. “We're using the space on the right to prominently display links to the AI summary and help users navigate to content that interests them,” Hema Budaraju, senior director of search product management at Google, told The Verge. Google will continue to show regular search results below the AI summary.
Click the icon in the top right corner of the AI Overviews on mobile to see the source link. Image: Google
Google is also experimenting with attaching links to text in AI Overviews. Clicking on the linked text will take you to related websites, as well as web pages that Google will surface in a new right-hand display. So far, Google says initial tests have shown “positive” results, leading to “increased traffic to publisher sites.”
Other features that Google will be introducing to Search Lab's AI summaries include the ability to save your AI summaries so you can refer to them again when performing the same search. Google will also store your saved AI summaries on your interests page.
Additionally, Google is adding a button that lets you simplify some of the AI summaries it previewed earlier this year. Both of these features are available in the “AI Summary and More” experiment in Search Labs for U.S. English queries.
Each country's AI overview is in the local language. GIF: Google
Asked what steps Google takes to prevent these kinds of answers from appearing in other countries or languages, Hema Budaraju, senior director of search product management at Google, said the company “conducts a rigorous evaluation process and extensive adversarial testing in every market,” adding that “quality and safety are built into the design of our AI overviews.”
“We don't know if there's one single way to search and answer every question people in the world have, but we're committed to actively learning and listening,” Budaraju says.
