What you need to know
- Google is rolling out a few updates for its AI-generated overviews, beginning with a “save” feature for rediscovery.
- Users will also find even more links as Google tests them inline to bring more awareness to additional context and for easier fact-checking.
- AI Overviews are also expanding to six additional countries over the next few weeks.
Expanding the helpfulness of Search is a key priority for Google as the company provides details of a few key updates.
The company’s latest string of AI Overview updates kicked off by highlighting its new capabilities. In a blog post, Google states users can test the new “save” function for AI Overview’s results. Saving it will reproduce the same results, links, and more whenever you search the same topic.
Moreover, Google lets users see saved overviews within their Interests page tucked inside their account from Search. English-based queries in the U.S. will find the option to save overviews today (August 15). Google states users should ensure they’ve enrolled in the appropriate “AI Overviews and more” test in Labs.
The next experimental update brings the option to “simplify the language” used in an AI Overview. Google states that “some” overviews provided during a search will offer a button to refine a result’s language to avoid any complex or confusing jargon. Testers enrolled in “AI Overviews and more” should see it appear today (August 15) in the U.S.
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Elsewhere, a new set of links will be displayed on the right-hand side of results. Google states these links will be rolled into AI Overviews whenever information is collected and displayed for a complex question. Users on mobile will find these additional “relevant” links by tapping the “site icons” in the top-right corner of an overview.
Google’s extra relevant links in AI Overviews are rolling out today (globally) in every country that has them alongside Search Labs testers.
Additionally, the post states there’s an ongoing test for inline links whenever AI Overviews appear for bite-sized information.
The final update includes an expansion of Google’s AI Overviews to more places. Following extensive testing and feedback from U.S. users, Google states its overviews are arriving in the U.K., India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.
The expansion isn’t hitting every area at once, as Google adds that the rollout will continue over the next “several weeks.” More importantly, users in those areas will find full support for their preferred language in AI Overviews once it arrives.
Google previewed the ability for users to “adjust” their overview results earlier this year after I/O 2024. We’re now seeing that roll out as this simplification of language to help ease the digestion of difficult-to-understand topics. However, the company upgraded the overviews in May so that users could provide more complex, multi-step questions.
Users getting their hands on AI Overviews won’t have to break up a lengthy question. Instead, Google’s software should take it in stride and deliver accurate and relevant results when called upon.