It’s not just you: Google seemingly scaled back AI Overviews after its rocky launch

No one seems particularly happy with the state of Google Search right now. A platform that was already facing a decline — just look at everyone’s favorite Reddit-focused workaround for evidence — cranked up the criticism levels to 11 last month with the official launch of AI Overviews. After weeks of social media dunks and surprisingly pithy responses from Google, we’re finally seeing the result of everyone’s feedback towards Gemini-powered search results. Unsurprisingly, they’ve seemingly been dialed back across the board.

A new report from Wired cites figures from SEO firm Brightedge that showcase just how hidden Google’s “future of search” currently is. This research found that the average amount of search results where AI Overviews appear have dropped to just 11 percent of queries, down from around 27 percent when the tool launched publicly in mid-May. If you include examples from when AI Overviews were exclusively offered as an opt-in experience called Search Generative Experience (or SGE), it’s down from 84 percent in December of 2023.

Google’s answer to bad AI Overviews seems to be as simple as hiding their results

Anecdotally, I can say the same — and have, in fact, on recent episodes of the Android Police podcast. I originally intended to use AI Overviews for the only thing they’re currently good for (creating content), only to find that the frequency in which I actually see genAI-powered results is completely out of whack compared to where it was in the immediate haze of Google I/O. They’re so unreliable, in fact, that I can’t imagine most users growing used to seeing AI Overviews at the top of the page; the less familiar something is, the less likely you are to use it.

A Google spokesperson did offer comment on the visibility of its search tool, declining to share internal stats on when, exactly, AI Overviews appear in results while also noting the company is continuing to refine the feature. However, the company did clarify that opt-in testers in 2023 did see AI results on more searches than regular users following last month’s launch. As someone who tested SGE for over a year before they went mainstream, I can definitely vouch for a rollback on visibility following its limited testing period.

For its part, Brightedge also dove into the categories in which AI Overviews appear most often, and the results are, well, concerning. It’s health-focused searches where AI results tend to crop up, appearing as often as 63 percent of the time. Put that in comparison with shopping, restaurant recommendations, and travel — the three things Google tends to spend the most time showing off with these tools — and you’re looking at drastically reduced or outright invisible suggestions.

Frankly, that doesn’t feel particularly good as a Google Search user. Healthcare is already in such a bad place on the internet — WebMD telling you that common cold symptoms could mean death is literally a decades-old meme. Throwing in scrambled AI results just seems like a recipe for disaster, or at best, a ton of new memes for Twitter. And as both the New York Times and Wired found over the last week, even something as harmless as “is chocolate healthy” can return some head-scratching results from untrustworthy sources.

Put simply, Google’s response to the constant flow of criticism over AI Overviews hasn’t been great. No matter how its VP and Head of Search tries to spin the current state of this product, it’s clear that no one is particularly happy with using Google to browse the web. And if the company’s answer to these sorts of concerns is to simply dial back how often AI Overviews appear, well, you have to wonder if it really is the future of search after all.

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