THE CRUNCH
Google is updating AI Overviews and AI Mode so inline links appear higher up in responses more frequently, according to a company blog post. The change is meant to make key sources easily clickable at the moment you need them, in a results format that replaces the traditional list of links with a customised answer.
The update is part of a broader set of link-focused tweaks. Google is testing a layout that places relevant links at the top of a response with context when only a handful of sites cover a specific task or piece of information, using an airline refund query as its example. Link carousels first announced in May are now rolling out to more locations and languages for timely articles, and links at the end of a query are getting image thumbnails and a more clickable design. Google is also testing clickable links to publisher and creator search profiles within AI Mode.
Publishers have a stake in all this: the AI answer format has raised concerns that it reduces traffic to websites. Google's changes lean the other way, and the company also says more than 400 publishers have joined its News AI pilot, a licensing programme announced in December that pays for enhanced content used to build AI features such as in-depth article overviews on Google News. Axios, CNN and the Financial Times are among the new partners, according to Google.