Google Adds More Links To AI Mode And AI Overviews, Still Withholds Click Data
Google has made another round of changes to how links appear in AI Mode and AI Overviews. The company is showing more links inside AI responses, moving some of them higher up the answer, and adding one or two links to what it calls the right web page for queries that warrant them.
Timely article carousels are being extended to more regions and languages, related-article links have a more prominent design, and Google is testing links from creator and publisher names on videos in AI Mode. Those name links point to Google's own Search profile pages rather than to the creator's site.
Google says the number of people using preferred sources has grown more than sevenfold. It has not added click data to its AI performance reports, saying only that it is working with website owners on which insights would be most useful and will introduce more metrics over time.
For brands and agencies tracking citations in AI answers, the changes shift where links appear but leave the main measurement gap in place. Without click figures, visibility in AI Mode and AI Overviews can still only be judged by whether a brand is cited, not by what that citation sends to the site.
Reported by Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Topics: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Measurement