Google is updating its AI Overviews and AI Mode in search to show more links in responses and additional sources, including content from Reddit and other platforms hosting online discussions. Google will also team up with publishers to make article links in AI responses show a “subscribed” button when readers have an active subscription to the publication.
“We’re now rolling out a new feature that highlights links from your news subscriptions in AI Mode and AI Overviews, so you can quickly access the content you trust and get more value from your subscriptions,” Google said today. “In early testing, we saw that people were significantly more likely to click links that were labeled as their subscriptions.”
Google will now show more links to sources within its AI responses, and the company is also making them more visible. For example, an AI response that uses bullet points may now show links right next to relevant bullet points. On the desktop, users will also be able to see more details about a linked website when hovering their mouse cursor over them.
To improve the quality of its AI responses, Google will also start surfacing quotes from Reddit and other public online discussions. When that happens, users will see the name of the subreddit and other important details about the source. “For example, if you’re researching how to take great pictures of the northern lights, you might see quotes from a photography forum advising on exposure time, along with clickable links – featuring the specific community name – so you can jump to the full conversation,” Google explained.
Lastly, some AI responses will now include a “Further Exploration” at the bottom with additional links and details about why they’re relevant. “We’re continuing to enhance how we show and rank links in our generative AI Search experiences and using techniques like query fan-out, which helps us dive deeper into the web to find the most relevant sites for your search,” Google said today.