After a lot of hype at Google I/O, the tech giant’s AI Overviews aren’t popping up in search results as much as they used to. According to a new analysis by SEO platform BrightEdge, AI Overviews appeared in less than 7% of Google search queries at the end of June, compared to 11% when the month began. While not in the higher percentiles of search results regardless, the downward trend is notable after so much was made of the AI-powered search results.
AI Overviews use the Google Gemini AI models to compose a summary based on the search results of a user’s query. Google was very keen on the feature at first, but the downward trend for AI Overviews actually goes back to April, even before the official announcement at Google I/O. While AI Overviews appeared in response to approximately 15% of queries at first, that number has dropped ever since. The decrease accelerated in June, with BrightEdge’s data showing a drop from 11% to 7% in the span of a month.
This trend has been consistent in basically every case in June, but some saw particularly steep drops. Searches about education saw AI Overviews appearing 26% of the time at the beginning of the month and just 13% by the end. Meanwhile, entertainment-related queries fell from 14% to almost nothing, while e-commerce AI Overviews responses went from 26% to 9%. This does suggest Google wants AI Overviews to come up only when a problematic answer is less likely.
Even the physical space that AI Overviews occupy at the top of search results is 13% smaller on average. This reduction in pixel space signifies Google’s attempt to balance the prominence of AI-generated content with traditional search results, possibly to mitigate the risks associated with AI inaccuracies.
There are plenty of reasons to explain the numbers. You’d expect Google to make ongoing adjustments based on what they hear from users and note in internal tests. It’s likely that the much-publicized incorrect and downright dangerous AI-generated answers had something to do with it. People will be wary of any tool that tells them to eat rocks.
SE Uh-Oh
Online search is incredibly valuable both technically and economically. AI seemed like an obvious enhancement to the industry, but it also raised red flags about its potential negative impact on traffic to websites. For now, there are still significant bugs, no matter what the long-term impact might be. Cutting down on AI Overviews might assuage some concerns about AI harming organic website traffic for now, but Google has made it clear it wants to implement AI Overviews as much as possible, so that fight has only been tabled, not resolved.
And Google isn’t alone in pursuing AI summaries of search results. Microsoft Bing and other rivals are trying to fill that gap. Yet, despite the issues with AI Overviews and the pullback from Google, BrightEdge is bullish on Google’s AI search leadership.
“There is no doubt that Google’s dominance remains strong, and what it does in AI matters to every business and marketer across the planet. BrightEdge founder and Executive Chairman Jim Yu said in a statement. “At the same time, new players are laying new foundations as we enter an AI-led multi-search universe. AI is in a constant state of progress, so the most important thing marketers can do now is leverage the precision of insights to monitor, prepare for changes, and adapt accordingly.”
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