Google Drops AI Overviews Label on Some Desktop Results
Google appears to be removing the AI Overviews label from some AI Overviews on desktop search results, while the same features keep the label on mobile. The change was spotted by Glenn Gabe, who noticed unlabelled AI Overviews for shows and movies.
Barry Schwartz flagged the discrepancy and said he suspects a bug, noting that Google has had missing AI labels before and that it turned out to be a bug in that case. He has reached out to Google for comment. Plenty of AI Overviews are still labelled as such.
The timing may also explain a reported drop in how often AI Overviews appear in Semrush tracking, which Schwartz attributed to a tracking issue rather than a real decline.
For brands tracking whether they are cited in AI answers, an unlabelled AI Overview is harder to identify in screenshots and audits, so visibility tools that rely on the label may undercount appearances until the labelling is consistent again.
Reported by Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Topics: AI Overviews, Google Search, Measurement