# Google adds AI Overviews opt-out to 'Control what you share' guide

Published: 2026-10-21T14:03:44.463Z · Source: Google Search Central (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
Source date: 2026-10-21
Entities: google, search-console, ai-overviews

Google's October 21 changelog says it updated the "Control what you share with Google Search" help page to document "existing options such as the robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, X-Robots-Tag, and the Search generative AI control," with Google citing the goal of keeping the page "fresh" — per Search Engine Roundtable, which compared the before-and-after text. The Search generative AI control is the Search Console setting that excludes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative Discover features.

Google's separate "AI features and your website" guidance page — which this wire checked on August 27 and found made no mention of the control, directing site owners instead to nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex — still does not mention it as of this update.

Why it matters: Google folded its AI Overviews opt-out into a general crawling-and-indexing help page rather than into its own AI-features guidance for site owners, so a publisher following that guidance would still not learn the control exists.

## What this answers

**Where does Google document how to opt out of AI Overviews?**

Google's "Control what you share with Google Search" help page was updated October 21, 2026 to list the Search generative AI control — the Search Console setting that excludes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative Discover features — alongside the robots meta tag, data-nosnippet and X-Robots-Tag.

**Does Google's main AI-features guidance for site owners mention the AI Overviews opt-out control?**

No — as of October 21, 2026, Google's "AI features and your website" page still does not mention the Search generative AI control, and instead directs site owners to nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex.


Canonical: https://anythingengineoptimization.com/item/2026-10-21-google-adds-ai-overviews-opt-out-to-control-what-you-share-guide/
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