Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries
Google has confirmed that for some queries AI Overviews may dynamically expand to its full state, replacing the AI Overview snippet with a full detailed response. This not only removes the “Show more” button in the AI Overview but it also pushes down the core search results that searchers were able to see without having to always scroll down the page.
Now the Google Search results look more like a full AI answer, more like how AI Mode works, versus how Google has typically shown AI responses within Search.
What it looks like. For some queries, Google will fully expand the AI Overview response, so the need to click on the “Show more” button will not be needed. Here is a GIF of it in action:
If users have already begun scrolling to view content below the AI Overview, Google cancels the expansion so that the user doesn’t lose their reading position.
What Google said. A Google spokesperson told us:
- “For some queries, AI Overviews may dynamically expand for topics where our systems determine it’s most useful for people.”
But as you can imagine, Google said this is a good thing. Google added:
- “Our research has shown that with this dynamic experience, users find Search more helpful and engage deeper in follow-up exploration.”
More details. Chris Long spotted this earlier and posted on X, he wrote, “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,” he added.
Here is his post:
Why we care. If you thought AI Overviews take away clicks, just wait for this to roll out to your queries. This should lead to even fewer and fewer clicks from Google Search. Google earlier this week added link carousels for developing topics to AI Mode, like it did for AI Overviews. But I doubt that will help all that much for most queries that show this fully expanded answer.
Google did not comment on what percentage of queries this impacts and if it will continue to expand to more queries over time. But you’d have to imagine it will. We all expect AI Mode to take over Google Search at some point in time, and Google has been taking baby steps in that direction.
