In May at Google I/O, Google shared its first steps in a new era of Search by introducing AI Overviews – first in the US and followed by more countries this past August. Last month, we began testing this feature locally and starting today, Google rolling out AI Overviews Australia wide.
Here are the edited contents of Google’s official blog post on this announcement:
How AI Overviews work
AI Overviews use generative AI to help you quickly find what you’re looking for – providing an AI-generated snapshot about a topic or question, along with key information and links to dig deeper.
AI Overviews are particularly helpful for more complex questions that might have previously taken multiple searches. For example, if you’re looking up travel tips, or need swift and reliable step-by-step instructions to remove a stain.
AI Overviews can help people get to the gist of a topic or question more quickly, while also providing a jumping off point to learn more from sites across the web.
Here’s an example Google has provided of how this looks:
What we’ve learned
Every year in Search, Google performs hundreds of thousands of quality tests and experiments to figure out how to make Google more helpful.
Since launching AI Overviews in other countries and testing in Australia, Google has found that people who use AI Overviews are more satisfied with their results. It’s clear that people who are looking for help with complex topics find them especially helpful.
Already, people are asking longer questions, diving deeper into complex subjects and uncovering new perspectives — which means more opportunities for people to discover content from publishers, businesses and creators. Additionally, Google reports it “continues to see stronger engagement from younger users (18-24) with AI Overviews.”
Connecting to the best of the web
Google says helping people discover content from publishers, businesses and creators remains central to its approach with AI Overviews in Search – both globally and in Australia.
Since the feature first launched in the US in May, Google has introduced more prominent ways to show links to relevant websites within AI Overviews, with a right-hand link display on desktop and a similar experience on mobile, accessible by tapping the site icons in the upper right.
And earlier this month, Google started launching in-line links that appear directly within the text of AI Overviews, making it easier for people to visit sites that interest them. In Google’s testing, both of these updates drove an increase in traffic to supporting websites compared to the previous designs.
Google’s promise of a “bold and responsible approach to AI”
Google wisely notes “there are known limitations with generative AI and LLMs, and Search.”
Therefore, it’s no surprise to see Google stating it is taking a responsible and deliberate approach to bringing new generative AI capabilities to Search.
Google says it has “trained these models to uphold Search’s high bar for quality. They rely on our hallmark systems that we’ve fine-tuned for decades, and we’ve also applied additional guardrails, like limiting the types of queries where these capabilities will appear. We will continue to make improvements over time.”
As AI Overviews roll out in Australia, Google promises to “continue to gather feedback and understand how we can make Search and AI Overviews more helpful to Australians as they search for diverse information – whether they’re looking up tips or discovering the world around them.”
Here are some more examples of Google AI Overviews at work:
Try it out for yourself at Google.com and see what those AI overviews look like!
