AI Overviews

AI Overviews are summaries written by Google’s Gemini model that appear at the top of some search results, with links to the pages used as sources. They grew out of Google’s Search Generative Experience test and launched broadly in the US in May 2024, then expanded to many more countries and languages.

To build one, Google may run several related searches behind the scenes, a technique it calls query fan-out, and combine what it finds. That is why an AI Overview can cite pages that don’t rank in the top ten for the original query.

Three features get confused. A featured snippet quotes one page directly. An AI Overview writes a new summary and cites several pages. AI Mode is a separate, conversational search experience in its own tab, where the whole result is AI-generated and follow-up questions are expected.

For site owners, Google says no special markup is needed: a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet to be shown as a source. Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews are included in Search Console’s Performance report under Web search, with no separate filter. The nosnippet and max-snippet controls limit how your content can be used. Studies widely report lower click-through rates on queries that show an AI Overview, which is one driver of zero-click searches.