Google has announced plans to make links to websites and news articles more prominent in its artificial intelligence-powered search results, as publishers and brands raise concerns over declining online traffic.
The Alphabet-owned company said on Thursday that links would appear more frequently and higher up in AI-generated search content, giving users greater access to original sources and additional information.
Google began integrating artificial intelligence features into its search engine more than two years ago. In May 2024, it introduced AI Overviews, which provide AI-generated summaries of search queries instead of relying solely on traditional search results and website links.
In March 2025, the company introduced AI Mode, a separate search interface that delivers more comprehensive AI-generated answers and additional links than AI Overviews.
Under the latest changes, contextual links will appear more frequently and in more prominent positions within AI-generated search results.
Google will also expand the global availability of its link carousel, a feature that displays cards containing headlines and images from relevant articles directly below AI Overviews.
The company said its algorithm would prioritise articles from websites users have identified as preferred sources. The feature will also incorporate relevant content from social media posts and online forums.
Additionally, Google plans to make links displayed at the end of AI-generated summaries “more engaging and prominent” to encourage users seeking further information to explore the original sources.
During Alphabet’s second-quarter 2025 earnings results, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said AI Overviews had attracted more than two billion monthly users across over 200 countries.
However, the growing use of AI-generated summaries has raised concerns among publishers, with several studies indicating that users are less likely to click through to suggested websites when search engines provide answers directly on their results pages.
According to a report by consultancy Chartbeat, news publishers recorded a 40 per cent decline in traffic originating from Google between July 2025 and July 2026.
The trend has intensified tensions between technology companies and media organisations over the use of journalistic content in AI-generated responses and the potential impact on publishers’ revenue.
In August, Apig, a group representing daily newspapers in France, alerted the country’s Competition Authority, arguing that AI-generated summaries breached agreements reached with news publishers in 2022.
Google’s latest changes come amid growing pressure on search platforms to ensure that AI-powered features continue to direct audiences to the original websites and publishers whose content informs their responses.
AFP
