Google’s Auto-Expanded AI Overviews Are Changing How Search Works

Google Search is moving from a page of links toward an answer-first, conversational interface. For some searches, an AI Overview now expands automatically into a full response, removes the “Show more” step, and places an “Ask anything” field above the conventional results. The result is a taller AI response and a longer path to the blue links below it. 21 37

What changes for searchers

The older experience gave users a choice: read a short AI Overview, expand it, or continue to the regular results. The newer behavior removes that choice for selected queries. Google may display the full generated response immediately, followed by a prompt for a conversational follow-up and then the traditional links. 34 37

That can be convenient when someone wants a quick synthesis. It is less convenient when the goal is to compare publishers, inspect primary sources, evaluate competing viewpoints, or reach a particular website. The issue is not simply that an AI answer exists; auto-expansion makes it the dominant first interaction and pushes conventional results farther down the page.

When does Google expand an AI Overview?

Google Search executive Robby Stein said the expansion happens only for topics where Google’s systems determine that the larger response will be most useful. He also said that if a searcher has already started scrolling, the expansion stops so the page does not move unexpectedly. 42

That explanation leaves important details unanswered. Google has not published a complete list of eligible query types, a threshold for expansion, or a rollout map that would let people predict exactly when the full response will appear. Stein also described the experience as something Google continues to test and tune. 42

In practical terms, the behavior may depend on the query, the search context, the account or device, and the stage of Google’s rollout. A result that shows a compact overview in one session may display a full answer in another. The inconsistency is part of why the feature is difficult to anticipate or control.

Can you stop the expansion?

There is no dependable native setting described in Google’s public AI Overview guidance that guarantees the removal of every AI Overview. Google’s documentation focuses on where the feature is available and on moving from an Overview into a deeper AI Mode conversation. 24

Searchers can try several practical alternatives:

• Scroll immediately after the results load. Google says a pending expansion stops once the user has begun scrolling. 42
• Use the Web filter when it is available. This presents a more conventional link-focused results view, although Google can change how filters and AI features behave.
• Hide the interface locally. Browser extensions or content blockers may remove the visible AI Overview, but hiding the element is not necessarily the same as preventing Google from generating it.
• Go directly to trusted sources. For medical, legal, financial, technical, or otherwise consequential questions, visiting a known primary source can be more reliable than treating a generated summary as the final answer.

These are workarounds rather than a permanent opt-out. Google’s interface and feature availability remain subject to testing and regional rollout.

Why publishers are concerned

Auto-expansion increases the chance that a user will consider the search complete without visiting a conventional result. That creates a plausible additional pressure on referral traffic, particularly for explainers, product research, and other informational pages whose value has traditionally depended on visits from Search. The size of that effect from this specific interface change has not yet been established.

The concern comes as AI Overviews themselves become more common. Similarweb data reported in 2026 put their appearance rate at 43% of measured searches by May 2026, compared with 15% a year earlier. 51 Those figures are an external estimate, not Google’s own disclosure; reporting on the data also cautions that the underlying methodology, sample, and scope should be considered before treating the percentages as a universal measure of all Google searches. 45

The dispute has already reached regulators and courts. Penske Media, the owner of publications including Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, sued Google, alleging that AI-generated summaries use its journalism without consent and reduce traffic to its websites. Google has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. 2 1 Separately, the Independent Publishers Alliance filed an EU antitrust complaint and sought interim measures, arguing that AI Overviews could cause serious harm to publishers. Those remain allegations and procedural actions, not final findings. 3

Google’s stated position is that AI Overviews and AI Mode provide relevant links that help people explore the web and discover content. 17 The unresolved question is whether links embedded in an AI-led experience generate the same visibility and referral value as prominent organic results.

How auto-expansion fits Google’s AI Mode strategy

The design is consistent with Google’s broader effort to make Search conversational. Google’s support material describes moving from an AI Overview into a deeper AI Mode exchange, where users can ask follow-up questions and continue researching. 24 Google has also promoted direct transitions from an Overview into AI Mode, including designs in which expanding an Overview leads into the conversational experience. 32 38

Google is adding more links inside that AI-native interface rather than restoring the old hierarchy. For developing topics, it has introduced horizontal link carousels in AI Overviews and extended them to AI Mode, giving timely articles a more prominent position within generated responses. 20 25

That approach reflects Google’s stated goal of combining generated answers with links, but it still changes what “ranking” means in practice. Publishers are no longer competing only for a position among blue links; they are also competing to be cited, surfaced in carousels, or selected as a source inside an answer that may occupy most of the initial screen.

The larger shift

Google is not merely placing an AI feature beside traditional Search. For selected queries, it is making the AI response the first layer of the results page and turning the page itself into a possible doorway to AI Mode.

For searchers, that may mean faster summaries and easier follow-up questions. For anyone who needs source comparison—or depends on organic referrals—it means more scrolling, less control over the initial layout, and a search experience whose rules are still changing.