Google’s AI Overviews in Search, which shows an informational snapshot on the results page, will soon be available to over 1 billion monthly global users as it rolls out to over 100 countries and territories, rising from only a handful earlier this year.
Searching in a whole new way
Google’s AI-generated search summaries will soon appear for users in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and be available in countries including Australia, Antarctica, New Zealand, Laos, Vietnam, Canada, Columbia, Chile, Peru, Panama, Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, and many more.
AI Overviews will show results in those supported languages for countries on Google’s updated list.
Another handy feature is that people living in a foreign country can search using their native language, and AI Overviews will appear in their mother tongue.
Srinivasan Venkatachary, Google VP for Search quality, announced the expansion on Google’s KeyWord blog, saying:
- “In our largest expansion yet, we’re launching AI Overviews in more than 100 countries and making them accessible in more languages — helping you search in a whole new way, no matter what questions are on your mind.”
Venkatachary added:
- “As part of this update, we’re also extending language support across the board. If you’re in any country with AI Overviews, you can now get them in any of the currently supported languages, including English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. So, for example, if you’re in the United States and you speak Spanish, you can now see AI Overviews in your preferred language.”
A rocky start
Since Google launched AI Overviews in May this year, the tool has consistently been updated and improved. Considering its rocky start, advising users to put glue on pizza and bath with a toaster to remove stress. It had to!
However, Google knew there would be teething problems as it refined where AI Overviews sourced its information, what it displayed, and how often it appeared in Search.
During those early days (the past five months), Google’s Gary Illyes advised caution when using large language models to resource content to compare AI-generated answers against authoritative sources.
From acorns, mighty oaks grow
Google took the early criticism on the chin, seeing it as part of the learning process and using those early results to refine AI Overview summaries before its global rollout. By adding 100-plus countries, it appears Google believes it’s ready.
Another sign that AI Overview is moving swiftly up through the gears was the October launch of AI-organized search results and in-line links appearing within AI Overviews text, which Google said are increasing website traffic to smaller independent websites. You can view the complete list of countries on Google’s website.