AI Overviews
Coverage of Google’s AI Overviews: how they choose and link sources, and the controls Google documents for site owners.
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What Google actually says about AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google’s own documentation, quoted and dated: who is eligible, how query fan-out works, what Search Console now reports and which controls exist. Where Google is silent, we say so.
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Google says robots.txt governs crawling, not use, and lists its AI Search controls
A Google video and a documentation update on Oct. 21 separate controlling crawling from controlling use in AI Overviews and AI Mode. A standardized robots.txt rule for AI-use preferences is still only an IETF draft.
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Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews will show links higher, but gives no placement or click data
Google says inline links will sit higher in AI responses and is testing a section for official websites. It gave no figures on link placement or clicks, so site owners have little to test the claim against.