Google is bringing its AI Overviews feature to more than 100 countries around the world, a massive expansion after initially becoming available just in the U.S. and later a half dozen other countries. AI Overviews, which employ Google’s Gemini AI models to summarize answers to search queries, will now be available to more than a billion monthly users.
The paragraphs written by the AI Overviews feature are concise and include links to the sources used to compose them, usually articles from publications, business websites, or related sources. Google has claimed since they debuted that AI Overviews have led to increased engagement with diverse sources on the web.
Along with the geographic expansion, Google is also adding new language support to the service. Depending on where you are located and what language you use for Google Search, you’ll see AI Overviews in either English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, or Spanish. The wider access based on location and language isn’t the only upgrade for AI Overviews. Google has also unveiled a new link display to showcase the websites and content sources used to produce better AI summaries. The AI Overviews also now include right-hand link displays formatted for desktop and mobile devices. In them, you can see related content on websites, augmenting the in-line links within the AI Overview text.
“With AI Overviews in Search, it’s easier than ever for people to find the information they need and discover relevant sites across the web, which opens up more opportunities to connect with publishers, businesses, and creators.,” Google Vice President of Search Quality Srinivasan Venkatachary explained in a blog post. “Since launching in May and expanding beyond the U.S. in August, the feedback we’ve received for AI Overviews has been highly positive. People prefer using Search with AI Overviews, and they find their search results more helpful. So now, in our largest expansion yet, we’re launching AI Overviews in more than 100 countries and making them accessible in more languages — helping you search in a whole new way, no matter what questions are on your mind.”
Global AI Overviews
The global rollout makes it clear that the signs that Google was pulling back on AI Overviews were exaggerated. Though there was some speculation that Google was leery about promoting the feature after reports of incorrect and even dangerous answers, that’s clearly no longer the case.
Google has even started testing advertisements within AI Overviews, at least for U.S. mobile users. These ads are labeled to differentiate them from standard search results but are aimed at encouraging users to look at and potentially buy products and services relevant to their search terms. Search is the heart of Google’s business and remains so despite judicial battles over whether the company is violating anti-monopoly laws. If Google feels comfortable enough with AI Overviews to make it a global feature, the ads are almost certain to follow in its wake, with multilingual AI-generated links that will be seen by billions.
