AI overviews continue to appear less and less in Google search, with a new report finding that they appear in less than 10% of search queries.
It’s been over two months since Google rolled out AI Overviews to all US search users, and the consequences for Google have been dire. While many feared AI Overviews would pull large chunks of the internet away from individual websites, the massive and viral bugs AI Overviews has caused have led Google to dramatically scale back the project.
Data published in early June revealed that Google went from showing an AI overview in more than 80% of searches for preview testers to around 40-50% when the feature first launched broadly in May, to just 15% in the weeks following viral bugs like putting glue on pizza.
Now, updated numbers reveal that Google may have softened things even further.
Land search engine Reportsagain with data from Bright Edgewith Google only showing an AI overview in about 7% of searches as of late June. That’s down from 11% at the beginning of the month.
Analyzing this, the report claims that AI Overviews appear in half of all searches related to educational questions (from 26% to 13%), just 9% of e-commerce queries (down from 26%), and “about 0%” of entertainment-related questions (down from 14%). After viral bugs that largely originated from Reddit, AI Overviews also appears to be using Reddit much less frequently in its answers.
Similarly, we’ve noticed that “AI Comprehensive Reviews” are almost nonexistent. They appear only rarely, and even where they used to appear. Previously, we’ve observed that “AI Comprehensive Reviews” often appeared in queries that were phrased as a direct question. But now, even direct questions like “Is the Pixel watch waterproof?” result in Google showing a featured snippet and links instead of an AI-generated answer.
What about you? Have you seen the AI Overview recently? Vote in the poll below and let us know in the comments whether you prefer searching with or without the AI Overview.
More about Google Search:
Follow Ben: Twitter/X, ThreadsAnd Instagram
FTC: We use affiliate links to earn automatic income. more.
