Google AI Overviews: Generative Search Is Here
Google’s AI overviews got off to a rocky start. Alphabet’s first attempts to bring generative AI into Google search resulted in a flurry of inaccuracies, negative headlines, and considerable pushback from users frustrated with the new feature’s shortcomings. After more tweaking and plenty of machine learning, Google is the leading AI search engine it needs to be to retain its commanding market share.
What Is AI Overview?
AI overviews are a relatively new feature on the search engine results page (SERP) that uses generative AI to deliver short summaries related to a user’s search query. Google’s AI models pull information from several sources to provide an overview of the topic and include links to cited sources.
Google beta-tested AI overviews for several months as part of its Google Labs program, slowly adding testers as Google’s generative search capabilities improved. Overviews began being served to regular users in May 2024. At first, only a limited number of search queries triggered an AI result, and most of the results were served to English-language users in North America.
By August, Overviews expanded to over 100 countries and several languages. Industry reports find that Overviews appear on 7-10% of SERPs, but that reflects a steady increase in just a few months. With Google processing over 8.5 billion searches per day, even a fraction of a percentage point can have a seismic impact on user behavior and the organic performance of websites—including yours.
AI Overview Fails: Google Missteps
Overviews’s current success is even more impressive when looking back at its early shortcomings. The press and users lambasted early efforts after Overviews returned results that ranged from historically inaccurate to downright dangerous, much the same way its Bard (now Gemini) made a factual error during its debut demonstration in 2023.
The negative headlines and inaccurate information led many users to find ways to disable AI overviews. Indeed, Google rolled back AI Overviews in response to the backlash before slowly increasing its prevalence on the SERP later in 2024.
The Race for the Ultimate AI Search Engine
Google owns a commanding (and allegedly monopolistic) lead in search. Still, AI companies like OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude) have the potential to grab market share and eat into Google’s paid revenue as a result. Google’s 89.98% slice of the search market pie is what makes its Google Ads products so valuable; billions of people conduct searches per day, a ready-made trove of data as well as an audience for PPC and a dizzying array of display ads. And it’s not exactly close: Microsoft Bing is in second with 3.94% of search traffic.
Google’s investment and commitment to artificial intelligence in search is essentially digging a deeper moat. Creating an AI search product that is as accurate and useful as alternatives from ChatGPT (dubbed SearchGPT) mitigates the risk of users switching to these options. And it’s certainly been an investment: Google announced approximate capital expenditures exceeding $13.2 billion in Q2 2024 alone to support AI product development and the data centers that power them. Google also paid Reddit $60 billion to use the site’s posts to train its models.
What AI Search Means for Marketers
In many ways, AI Overviews continue Google’s effort to create a zero-click SERP. Local packs, featured snippets, and other SERP features surface information from individual domains onto the SERP, reducing the need for users to click through to websites.
So far, researchers haven’t been able to quantify the impact of AI Overviews on organic clicks, though Oneupweb has observed an increasing gap between rising SERP impressions and static or declining clicks in Google Search Console data. Google didn’t confirm whether Overview results counted toward impressions until August 2024, though the trend generally starts around the feature’s release date in May of that year.
While it’s difficult to determine the percentage of people using AI for search, it is undoubtedly growing as features like AI Overviews and AI products like SearchGPT gain popularity. Marketers, especially SEOs, must evaluate AI search results throughout keyword research and writing. Check your keywords in Google to see whether they include an AI Overview (tools like Semrush include Overviews as a SERP feature now), and note which links are cited in the summary. And remember, writing detailed, informative content designed for humans is still the best way to keep the robots happy.
Be Ready for All-Things AI with Oneupweb
We’ve been in the search game for nearly three decades, and we’ve learned a thing or two about reacting to new technologies without losing our cool. Our integrated teams of SEOs, strategists, and developers are always ahead of the latest tech and trends, and we conduct our own research to identify opportunities to benefit our clients. Top-notch results and white-glove customer service; that’s Oneupweb. Get in touch or call (231) 922-9977 today to get started.