Google starts auto-expanding AI Overviews, pushing traditional search links further down

Google is now automatically expanding its AI-generated search summaries for some queries, burying the familiar list of blue links deeper below the fold.

Key points

Google is automatically expanding AI Overviews for some searches, pushing traditional link results farther down the page.
The change was first reported by Search Engine Roundtable and confirmed by The Verge.
The auto-expansion does not appear to apply to all queries; Google has not specified which searches trigger it.

Launch facts

Availability:: Rolling out to some searches; full scope unspecified
Platforms:: Google Search

2 sources 1 web 82% confidence

Source highlights

The VergePrimaryGoogle further buries search results under AI mode—80%

xpert.digitalWeb context🔍🤖📉 Google is secretly changing its search results: Why AI answers are suddenly slipping down – The risky game with search results—64%

Full story and ongoing updatesRead full story

Story brief

Google is now automatically expanding its AI-generated search summaries for some queries, burying the familiar list of blue links deeper below the fold.

Who should care

DevelopersAudit your site's structured data and schema markup to ensure your content is cited within AI Overviews rather than just ranked in organic links.

As AI Overviews consume more screen space, being surfaced as a cited source inside the summary may matter more than traditional ranking position.

FoundersReassess your customer acquisition strategy if it depends heavily on organic Google search traffic, and diversify into direct channels and alternative discovery platforms.

Auto-expanding AI Overviews can reduce click-through to your site even when your content is referenced, threatening traffic-dependent growth models.

PMsTrack organic search referral traffic by query type and flag any drops correlated with AI Overview expansion on those keywords.

Understanding which of your target queries now trigger expanded AI Overviews helps prioritize SEO strategy shifts and content adaptation.

What changed

2026-08-02xpert.digital reports Google is quietly reshaping search results, with AI Overviews expanding to more queries while sometimes being pushed down for ads and traditional results.
2026-08-28The Verge reports Google is now automatically expanding AI Overviews for some searches, citing Search Engine Roundtable.