When Google introduced AI Overviews to Search in the US back in May, the feature's recommendations were infamous for recommending things like eating pebbles and putting glue on pizza. The results weren't great. Though it doesn't take a genius to figure out why Google decided it was a good idea to replace the outdated, non-AI-branded overviews for search queries with this new, AI-branded but inferior feature, the company's reasoning is still unclear: everything these days needs to be AI, regardless of real usability.


In light of this, Google has announced today that, in response to the somewhat disastrous trial in the US, AI Overviews will now be available in six more countries. The UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil will have to settle for AI Overviews instead of the previous AI-free (but far more accurate and reliable) overviews. In each of these nations, the expansion is accompanied by support for the native language.

Google is pleased to inform us that it has observed "higher engagement from younger users, aged 18-24, when they use Search with AI Overviews," even though AI Overviews may cause users to frequently have hallucinations and take satire seriously. We can only conclude from that that AI Overviews are most likely superior to TikTok. Google additionally states that "people prefer using Search with AI Overviews, and they find their search results more helpful". It doesn't seem to matter if they are more accurate or not.


Regardless, AI Overviews are now available as a right-hand link display on a desktop (you may also reach it on a mobile device by clicking the site icons in the upper right corner). To make it simpler to go check out what you're interested in, Google is also experimenting with the addition of links to pertinent web pages directly within the text of AI Overviews.

Search Labs has a new experiment that allows you to bookmark a particular AI Overview for later use. All you have to do is press the newly added Save button that shows up beneath your AI Overview. After that, by touching on your profile symbol and going to your Interests page, you may view the ones you've saved. You must first register for Search Labs' "AI Overviews and More" experiment before you can access this, which is only available in English in the US.

Lastly, if you're new to a topic and would want a simpler approach to understanding the material, there will be a one-tap option to simplify the wording on several AI Overviews. For Google to have labeled this button "Dumb it down, please" is a grave missed opportunity.