GEO news
What is changing in AI search. Each item is a summary with a link to the outlet that reported it.
BrightEdge finds big travel brands lead AI answers, with gaps in inspiration queries
New BrightEdge research into travel queries shows established brands taking most of the visibility in both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT, but the leader changes with the travel sector being asked about.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google AI Overviews now appear on more than 80% of searches as ads blend into AI Mode
Google's AI Overviews now surface on over 80% of search queries and the share is still climbing, according to the week's search news roundup.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Opting out of Google AI Overviews cut organic clicks too, small study finds
A small case study by Cyrus Shepard has put an estimated click-through rate of roughly 0.9% on impressions inside Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Showing Ads Within AI Overviews
Microsoft has begun placing sponsored results inside Bing's AI Overviews, the Copilot-powered answer boxes that replaced the Copilot Search box a few months ago. The format puts paid placements directly in the generated response rather than alongside it.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Reddit blames Google AI Mode for a million lost search referrals a week
Reddit's search referrals fell by more than 1 million a week on average during October, after a third quarter in which search traffic was already down meaningfully. The company told shareholders the decline accelerated late in the quarter and has carried into the current one.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Half of AI citations vanish by the next day, but most come back
Roughly 37,500 citations across five AI tools were tracked daily for 20 days to find out what happens to the sources that drop out of AI answers.
Source: Ahrefs Blog
Google tests query refinement bubbles above AI Overviews
Google is testing query refinement bubbles at the top of AI Overviews in Search. Tapping a bubble does not run a new search for that refined query. Instead it opens AI Mode, with the text of the bubble used as the prompt.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google May Be Pulling Citation Cards From AI Overviews
Google appears to be testing the removal of the citations card that normally sits alongside AI Overviews on desktop search results.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google says ads in AI Mode earn less than traditional search ads
Google's senior vice president and chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told analysts on the company's earnings call that advertising in AI Mode monetises worse than advertising in traditional search.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Pages cited by AI assistants more likely to answer the question up front, study finds
Pages that AI assistants cite open with a direct answer to the question more often than pages they pass over, according to an analysis of 193,507 AI answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google AI Mode passes 1 billion monthly users as it absorbs AI Overviews
Google's AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly active users, Sundar Pichai said at Google I/O in May 2026, calling it "our biggest upgrade to Search ever".
Source: Ahrefs Blog
AI Overviews now appear on more than 80% of Google searches
AI Overviews now appear on more than 80% of Google searches, up from roughly 50% in June last year and about 15% the year before, according to data from Semrush, SE Ranking and seoClarity.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google AI Overviews citation cards begin showing AI-written summaries
Google appears to be testing or rolling out AI-generated summary snippets inside the citation cards that sit alongside AI Overviews in Search.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Three new studies question the ROI of AI search optimisation
Three new studies on AI search have raised doubts about whether investing in generative engine optimisation or AI SEO pays back, arriving in a week when Google's search results showed further ranking volatility with no official core update announced.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
