Google adds sources section, more links to AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google is rolling out several changes to AI Mode and AI Overviews meant to surface more links out to other sites, per its own announcement:
- more inline links within responses, positioned higher for easier access
- a new section, still testing, that surfaces a topic’s official website at the top of some answers
- Preferred Sources news carousels, expanding to more locations and languages
- thumbnail images on end-of-response links to related articles
- clickable creator and publisher names on video results, linking to Search profiles — this one just started testing this week
Google also says use of Preferred Sources, the publisher-set feature it launched in May, is up more than 7x since the start of the year; the wire tracked it at 345,000 picks in May and 600,000 by August. Google gives no scope for any of the still-testing items — no language count, no rollout locations, no date they become general.
Why it matters: Most of these changes are still in testing rather than full rollout, and Google states no scope — no language count, no locations, no end date — for any of them, so the real measure is whether they survive to general availability.
The record: Google AI OverviewsGoogle AI ModeGoogle
Glossary: AI OverviewsAI Mode
Posted to the wire October 15, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.