Google is opening up access to its AI Summaries feature to half a dozen new countries and adding a few additional options to the search tool. AI Summaries use Google Gemini’s AI models to create a summary based on the search results of a user’s query. These summaries will now be shown to users in the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.
AI Overviews made a splash at this year’s Google I/O when the tech giant boasted that it would help users understand complex topics without having to visit multiple websites to find what they were looking for. Google has since claimed that AI Overviews have led to increased use of different sources on the internet and called the experiment a success by rolling it out to more countries. Depending on where the user is located, they will see summaries in the local language.
“We extensively test how people respond to updates to Search. Since launching in the US, we’ve found that people who use AI Overviews use Search more often and are more satisfied with their results,” Google said in a blog post. “People looking for help with complex topics are more engaged and keep coming back to AI Overviews. In addition, we’re seeing even higher engagement among younger users ages 18-24 when they use Search with AI Overviews.”
Google is relying heavily on AI Overviews with this expansion. This is somewhat surprising considering Google has been somewhat scaling back on promoting this feature recently. Not only were AI Overviews shown less frequently, they also took up a smaller portion of the screen. However, opening up to new languages and locations means Google has solved the problem of absurd, incorrect, and even dangerous answers that some have reported.
AI overviews just for you
As part of the expansion, Google has been experimenting with the look of AI Overviews and is testing some new feature ideas. For example, there’s a new link indicator on the right side for desktop users to make it easier to spot relevant sites when browsing AI Overviews. These links are visible on mobile when you tap the site icons in the top right of the screen. The company is also testing embedding links in the text of the summary created by AI Overviews. Google doesn’t want to upset the companies whose data is used for the AI summaries, so it hopes the hyperlinks will drive more traffic to publishers’ sites.
On the more experimental side, Google has added two new features to the “AI summaries and more” portion of its Search Labs testing platform. One try-it-out tool allows you to save an AI summary to view later. Tapping the new “Save” button beneath an AI summary lets you save it and come back to it when you need it. The other test is designed to simplify the summary provided by AI summaries. If the text written by the AI is difficult to understand, you can click a button to make the language more accessible or easier to understand for someone unfamiliar with the topic. Both tests are currently only available in the US.
Search remains crucial to Google, but after a recent court ruling that found the company violated antitrust laws, that could change. For now, improving AI is clearly the direction the industry is heading in, in one form or another. If Google wants to remain the epitome of online search capabilities, it will need useful AI tools. Whether AI Overviews is the killer app for that purpose is hard to say, but if you ask Google that question, you get a summary that almost certainly assumes that this app “will lead in AI search capabilities.”
