Google's AI Summaries Now Dominate Search, Forcing Users to Scroll Past Answers

Google is automatically deploying full-size AI Overviews at the top of search results for certain queries, a shift from the previous default that showed a collapsed summary with a "Show more" button. The expanded format prioritizes Google's AI-generated answer, adds an interactive "Ask anything" box below it, and relegates the familiar list of clickable links to lower on the page—requiring users to scroll past AI content to reach traditional search results.

Search Engine Roundtable first reported the change. Google has not publicly detailed the criteria determining which searches trigger auto-expansion, leaving publishers and SEOs uncertain about predictability. The move intensifies a long-standing tension: Google centralizes information on its own platform while reducing traffic incentives to external websites that depend on search referrals.