Google now auto-expands AI summaries, pushing traditional search links further down the page
Google has begun automatically expanding its AI-generated search summaries for certain queries, causing the conventional list of results to appear much lower on the page. The company says this dynamic behavior is triggered when its systems deem it most helpful, and it may cancel the expansion if users scroll away. The exact criteria for when this occurs remain unclear, as testing showed inconsistent behavior across searches and browsers.
The change was first flagged by Search Engine Roundtable, and Google confirmed the behavior to The Verge through spokesperson Jennifer Kutz. She explained that AI Overviews may dynamically expand for queries where Google's systems determine it would be most useful, and that the expansion is cancelled if users have already begun scrolling to preserve their reading position.
Testing by The Verge's Jay Peters showed inconsistent results. Some searches triggered the full AI Overview with an "Ask anything" box beneath it, while others still displayed the standard "Show more" button. Even a query that reliably produced the expanded view, "what is the best game on switch 2," behaved differently across browsers and repeated searches.
The auto-expansion of AI Overviews could significantly reshape how users interact with Google Search, potentially reducing organic traffic to websites that depend on search referrals. Publishers and small businesses may see fewer clicks as users engage with AI-generated answers instead of scrolling to traditional links. For everyday users, this could mean faster answers but less exposure to diverse sources, raising questions about information quality and the long-term health of the open web.