Google launched AI Overview in Search in the U.S. in May, and the results haven’t been great — the feature infamously recommended eating stones and putting glue on pizza. Google hasn’t yet explained why replacing the old, non-AI-branded overview for search queries with this new, AI-branded but inferior feature was a good idea, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out: everything has to be AI these days, regardless of actual utility.
So, with that in mind, today Google has announced the triumphant expansion of AI Overview to six more countries after the disastrous experiment in the US. The new locations that will have to make do with AI Overview, replacing the old AI-free (but more accurate and reliable) Overview, are the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil. The expansion comes with local language support in all these countries.
While AI overviews can cause a lot of confusion (and sarcasm mistaken for reality), Google is happy to tell us that it has seen “higher engagement from younger users aged 18-24 when they use Search with AI overviews”. On this, we can only say that AI overviews are probably better than TikTok. Google also says that “people like using Search with AI overviews, and they find their search results more useful”. Whether they are more accurate or not is not a concern at all.
Anyway, there’s now a link display on the right for the AI overview on desktop (which is also available on mobile by tapping the site icon in the upper right). Google is also testing adding links to relevant web pages directly in the text of the AI overview to make it easier to find and see what you’re interested in.
A new experiment in Search Labs lets you save a specific AI observation for future reference. All you have to do is tap the new Save button that appears below your AI observation. Then, you can view your saved ones by tapping your profile icon and navigating to your Interests page. This is only available for English in the US, and you’ll need to first enroll in the “AI Observations and More” experiment in Search Labs.
Finally, there will be an option to simplify the language on some AI observations with a tap, which could be handy if you’re new to a topic and want an easier way to digest the information. It’s a huge missed opportunity for Google to make this button a “please simplify this” button.