Blue links recede further: Google boosts its AI answers by default

Since their general rollout, AI Overviews have sat at the top of the results page, in the form of an AI-generated summary that Google used to truncate by default. A “Show more” button then gave everyone the choice to read more or move on to the websites. On some searches, that choice has quietly disappeared.With the search engine accounting for around nine out of ten queries in Europe, the slightest interface adjustment there shifts billions of clicks.

Holy moly SEOs: Google is now revealing the AI Mode prompt box BY DEFAULT for some queries.

This is how Google continues to push AI Mode as the default search experience. pic.twitter.com/Ero2pj3BZf

— Chris Long (@chris_nectiv) August 27, 2026

A box that unfolds without asking anyone’s permission

The change was first spotted on August 27 by an SEO consultant, before Google officially confirmed the move. For some queries, the company says the box “can deploy dynamically on topics where our systems deem it most useful”. It cites internal tests (unverifiable from the outside) showing a search “more useful” and an exploration “more in-depth”. Press publishers will appreciate the nuance. Until now, the collapsed version left part of the screen to outbound links, and users in a hurry could scroll past the AI with one flick of the mouse wheel. The full summary now takes up most of the display when opened, and organic results fall below the fold. It is the digital equivalent of an advertising foldout that opens by itself in the middle of a magazine, subsequent pages included.

A rollout that comes at the worst possible time for the French press

The French calendar gives the move a particular resonance.AI Overviews arrived in France on July 22, 2026, without prior negotiation, according to publishers. Google nevertheless remains bound until July 2027 by its 2022 commitments concerning neighboring rights. Less than three weeks later, on August 11, the General News Press Alliance brought the matter before the Competition Authority. The move builds on the complaint filed in Brussels by independent publishers in June 2025, and on the subsequent investigation opened by the European Commission. Available studies show declines in clicks to websites of between 33% and 42% for queries featuring an AI summary. These figures relate to the collapsed version; the impact of the version expanded by default remains to be measured, and nothing suggests it will work in publishers’ favor. Google regularly challenges the methodologies used in these studies, so the authorities will have to rule on the evidence. The company also provides no details on either the queries concerned or the geographical scope of the automatic rollout; at this stage, it is impossible to say when French searches will be covered by it.

Alternative search engines such as Qwant or Ecosia, whose results pages remain structured around links, find themselves holding an unexpected point of differentiation, and one that costs them nothing. They still need to turn this windfall into market share, an area in which Europe has rarely excelled against the Mountain View search engine.

Read also: Google: how to turn off AI overviews in search results?

For internet users, every query where the panel expands means a faster answer, and one fewer visit somewhere on the web. The open web retreats fold by fold.

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Source: SEO Round Table