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News publishers are likely to be displeased as AI Overviews increasingly appear in search results for breaking news topics. This trend has become more noticeable recently, with AI Overviews (AIOs) frequently appearing in the search results, often pushing down the Top Stories section. This is concerning because news outlets often rely on Top Stories for significant traffic, as those placements are prime real estate for capturing reader attention.
In recent observations shared on Digital Phablet, it was noted that when AI Overviews show up, the Top Stories segment tends to drop below the AIO, which is not ideal for publishers covering those timely updates. Visual evidence demonstrates this shift, showing screenshots where breaking news about figures like Gerrit Cole and companies like Rivian have their Top Stories moved below the AI Overviews in search rankings.
Historically, publishers enjoyed a degree of protection in search results for breaking news. Top Stories would typically rank at the very top, with AIOs not appearing immediately. Over time, as stories developed, AIOs would sometimes appear, but this usually happened after the news had already broken. Furthermore, Google has publicly stated that AI Overviews are intentionally not triggered for serious or hard news queries. This position was clarified last year at a major news media congress, where Google’s vice president of news partnerships, Jaffer Zaidi, emphasized that AI Overviews are designed not to appear for critical news topics.
Despite this, recent patterns suggest that AIOs are beginning to show more frequently for breaking news queries, even in situations where they previously would not. This development means news publishers should closely monitor the appearance of AI Overviews on their key topics, tracking how often and how quickly these summaries start appearing in search results for breaking stories.
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