Google tests AI Overview citations at the bottom, again
Google is testing a desktop AI Overviews layout that stacks citation cards below the answer instead of in the right-side panel, per Search Engine Roundtable, which cited screenshots from Glenn Gabe. In the closed state no citations appear at all — a reader has to click “show more” to see them, unlike the always-visible right-side panel. Google has not confirmed the test; SER says Google tried comparable bottom-placed citations at least twice before, in March 2026 and September 2025, and called this version “a nicer variation” of those earlier tests.
Why it matters: Google has now tested two ways of making AI Overview citations less visible in three weeks — narrower on Sep 8, now moved below the answer and hidden until a click — and each test shrinks one of the few paths off the page.
The record: GoogleGoogle AI Overviews
Glossary: AI Overviews
Via Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Posted to the wire September 29, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.