Google has started rolling out its AI search in Australia.
AI Overviews use generative AI to create a snapshot about a topic or question, along with key information and links to dig deeper.
The new AI search, feared by some publishers as a referral traffic killer, started testing last month to a small group of users in Australia.
"As AI Overviews roll out in Australia, we’ll continue to gather feedback and understand how we can make Search and AI Overviews more helpful to Australians as they search for diverse information - whether they’re looking up tips or discovering the world around them.," said Google in a blog post.
"Helping people discover content from publishers, businesses and creators remains central to our approach with AI Overviews in Search – both globally and in Australia.
"Since the feature first launched in the US in May, we’ve introduced more prominent ways to show links to relevant websites within AI Overviews, with a right-hand link display on desktop and a similar experience on mobile, accessible by tapping the site icons in the upper right.
"And earlier this month (October), we started launching in-line links that appear directly within the text of AI Overviews, making it easier for people to visit sites that interest them. In our testing, both of these updates drove an increase in traffic to supporting websites compared to the previous designs.
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