Google Search quietly fixed its AI problem by ignoring Quora and cutting back on Overviews

Google announced its AI Overviews feature at its annual I/O developer conference earlier this year to all users in the US. The same event where it uttered “AI” more than 120 times on stage. The feature, which essentially shows a consolidated summary of search results in an easy-to-digest (not if you ask some) panel right at the top of the search page, didn’t hit the ground running.

One week after the feature’s launch, to the dismay of users, Google announced that AI Overview would soon include sponsored ads, and that wasn’t even the worst part.

Soon after the rollout, users started noting the AI feature spewing out nonsensical, and often dangerous, search results, like suggesting users add glue to their pizzas or eat rocks.

The tech giant quickly had to go into damage control mode, saying that the feature was sourcing its answers to some user queries from satirical articles and Reddit comments, which resulted in dangerous recommendations like adding glue to pizza. It subsequently added measures to prevent the feature from picking up nonsensical information, which seemed to have worked for a while, until it started recommending adding glue to pizzas again, but this time, quoting it from reliable sources that covered the AI feature’s initial blunder.

Since then, Google has seemingly reduced AI Overviews’ visibility, and the stats back that up.

Related

Google’s AI created a glue-eating stir, then learned to recommend glue again from the ensuing coverage

Google can’t seem to escape the pizza glue fiasco

A new Search Engine Land report, which highlights statistics shared by BrightEdge, suggests that users are indeed seeing fewer AI Overview summaries overall, with results dropping from 15 percent of all searches in May to 7 percent now in July. Significant drops were observed in three primary categories, including education queries, which saw the presence of AI Overviews fall from 26 percent to 13 percent, e-commerce queries, which went down to 9 percent from 26 percent, and entertainment-related queries, which now show AI overviews 0 percent of the time.

When the Overviews do show up, they will reportedly be shorter than before, taking up less screen real estate.

Citations from Reddit in AI Overviews are down more than your favorite crypto

Source: BrightEdge 

One thing that Google learned from the pizza glue fiasco is that Overviews need to ensure credibility, and hence, citations from sources like Reddit and Quora have taken a big hit. This means that users will now see a lot fewer user-generated suggestions, roughly 85.71 percent and 99.69 percent less for information quoted from Reddit and Quora, respectively.

Elsewhere, the report also highlights an increase in Overviews showing up for more specific searches with keywords like “best,” “what is,” and “how to.” The AI feature is also reported to show more financial warnings across the board, and fewer lists, comparisons, product viewers, and carousels.

With the constant changes, it doesn’t look like AI Overviews are going away any time soon, and Google is committed to ensure the feature serves factual information in an easy-to-access way. Overviews might be useful in some situations, but today’s savvy searchers already know what they’re looking for and how to get to it, making the Overviews feature feel like a speed bump to scroll through before getting to the real information.

Related

How to turn off Google’s AI Overview feature

There is no direct way, but you can use these workarounds to get rid of AI Overviews from search results