Google says it’s exploring the option of letting publishers opt out of having their website content used to generate AI Overviews at the top of search results.
In a blog post published on Thursday, the company addressed its approach to the controls it provides to websites in order to manage how their content appears in Search AI features. The post was Google’s response to the fact that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a consultation into potential new requirements for Google.
Google introduced its AI Overviews features, which places AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, in summer 2024. The company relies on information scraped from websites to generate Overviews, and websites have been unable to opt out of Google using their content for this purpose.
As a direct result of this, many publishers and media organizations around the world have reported massive drops in click-through traffic, which has a domino effect on revenue and their ability to the produce the original content Google relies upon for Overviews.
Citing Google’s dominant position in the online search world, the CMA proposed a package of measures on Wednesday designed to ensure news and content producers get a fairer deal over how their content in used by the company. These measures include allowing publishers to opt out of their content being used to power AI features, such as AI overview, or to train AI models outside of Google Search.
In its blog post, Google said it was “now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features.” It didn’t say whether these controls would be available to publishers based outside of the UK.
“Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content,” the company said. “We look forward to engaging in the CMA’s process and will continue discussions with website owners and other stakeholders on this topic.”
The company also stated that any new controls it added needed to avoid breaking Google Search “in a way that leads to a fragmented or confusing experience for people.” Its overall goal is to protect “the helpfulness” of Search.
CNET operates as a brand of Ziff Davis.
It should be noted that Google’s AI Overviews have, on many occasions, provided inaccurate information, including in the above screenshot, which erroneously identifies CNET’s parent company as Red Ventures. (CNET is currently owned by Ziff Davis.) It could be argued that this represents an example of the “fragmented and confusing experience” Google says it wants to avoid.
The CMA said it would wait a year to announce the results of the consultation and whether it planned to take further action. In the meantime, Google said it hopes it can find a path forward “that provides even more choice to website owners and publishers.”
