Google Search’s AI makeover continues.
The company said that, starting today, mobile users will be able to ask follow-up questions to AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated search summaries. Doing so will launch users into a back-and-forth with AI Mode, its more conversational take on search that already lives in a separate tab on the search page.
After Google’s AI Overviews awkwardly stumbled out the gate in 2024 (pizza glue, anyone?) they’ve gradually become a staple of the Search experience.
However, until now, users have only been able to back-and-forth with Google’s AI models by going directly to AI Mode or using Google’s Gemini chatbot. Now, on mobile, users will be able to tap an “Ask anything” text box that will let them ask further questions.
By integrating the feature into AI Overviews, Google is further blurring the lines between its AI offerings and pushing Search further toward something more conversational.
“In our testing, we’ve found that people prefer an experience that flows naturally into a conversation — and that asking follow-up questions while keeping the context from AI Overviews makes Search more helpful,” said Robby Stein, the VP of product for Google Search.
A new trick with fewer clicks?
Google began testing the new feature on mobile late last year. Some publishers took umbrage with it at the time, voicing concerns that it would further reduce clicks to websites.
Ed Newton-Rex, the CEO of the nonprofit Fairly Trained AI, took a jab at an X post by Stein announcing the test in December, writing: “…and you shouldn’t have to visit any of the websites Google has scraped the information from.”
Google’s AI search transformation has left some publishers frustrated and confused by changes that give users answers directly, often negating the need to click through to a website.
Google has argued that it’s seeing more queries than ever before, and that it’s sending “higher quality clicks” as a result of the AI-related changes it’s making to Search.
The difference between those two things is important. Higher-quality clicks mean a user is more likely to have landed where they want to be and less likely to immediately leave, Google’s head of Search, Elizabeth Reid, has previously said. She has also said that the changes have affected user journeys, leading to some sites seeing decreased traffic.
Google’s latest update won’t allay those fears, but it does suggest Google is moving to a world where the differences between AI Mode, AI Overviews, and its Gemini chatbot are less obvious.
Benjamin Kaufman, product manager for AI Mode at Google, hinted at such last year, responding to a comment on X that criticized Google’s many different search modes.
“Yeah hopefully soon those distinctions start to feel like they fade away and you just ask Google anything and get what you need!” he wrote.
The update could get more people engaging with AI Mode, which Google has been nudging users toward. The company also said Tuesday it’s making Gemini 3, its latest AI model, the default model for AI Overviews globally.
Google has a significant distribution advantage over its competitors, with billions of queries sent to Google Search every day. That, along with the success of its latest Gemini 3 model, has helped the company pull off an impressive turnaround over the last year, and saw Google crack a $4 trillion market cap earlier this month.
Have something to share? Contact this reporter via email at hlangley@businessinsider.com or Signal at hughlangley.01. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
Read the full article here
