Google now auto-expanding AI Overviews, pushing search results further down

Google has begun automatically expanding its AI-generated Overviews to full length at the top of search results pages for certain queries, as first reported by Search Engine Roundtable and confirmed by The Verge.

Previously, users would see only part of an AI Overview response along with a "Show more" button to expand it. Now, in some cases, Google immediately displays the complete AI Overview, followed by an "Ask anything" box, and only then the standard list of search result links. The practical effect is that users must scroll considerably further to reach the traditional results.

Inconsistent behavior

It remains unclear what determines whether a given search triggers the auto-expanding overview. A Verge reporter testing the feature found that most of his initial test searches produced the fully expanded version, but later the same searches mostly reverted to showing just the truncated preview with a "Show more" button. The most reliable query for triggering the expanded view was "what is the best game on switch 2," though even that wasn't consistent across different browsers and search attempts.

Google's explanation

Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz told The Verge that for certain queries, AI Overviews may dynamically expand for topics where the company's systems determine expansion is most useful to people. She said Google's research indicates that this dynamic experience makes users find Search more helpful and leads them to engage more deeply in follow-up exploration. Kutz added that if a user has already begun scrolling to view content below the AI Overview, the expansion is canceled so the user doesn't lose their reading position.