Google has talked about AI search clicks in several different ways since launching AI Previews. This week, the company added new link surfaces instead of new click data. This article traces the evolution of Google’s public language around clicks, what each phase has revealed, and what this week’s five new link features add to the conversation.
“No data to share”
When Google launched AI Overviews in the United States in May 2024, complaints from publishers began almost immediately. In May 2025, the Pew Research Center had tracked by 68,000 search queries with more than 900 adults and put numbers behind them. Users clicked on results 8% of the time when the AI previews appeared, compared to 15% without them, and only 1% clicked a link in the AI preview itself.
Google’s first public response came Google Live Marketing in May 2025. Executives described clicks from AI-enhanced search as “more highly qualified.” When asked for supporting data, a representative said the company had “no data to share.”
This gap between the claim and the evidence behind it determined the trend for the next two years.
“The clicks that remain are of better quality”
By the end of 2025, publisher data had become harder to ignore. DMG Media reported to the UK Competition and Markets Authority that click-through rates had fallen by up to 89% for some queries with AI insights. Analyzing Publisher Impact on AI Overviews Digital Content Next measured a median year-over-year decline of 10% among 19 member publishers. A Reuters Institute investigation found that publishers expected search traffic to drop by more than 40%.
Google’s language shifted from no data to arguing that the remaining clicks were worth more. The lost traffic, according to this version, was of low value anyway. Users who clicked on the AI responses were more engaged and more likely to convert.
No data accompanied this claim either.
“Bounce clicks”
Google’s VP of Search, Liz Reid, gave the argument a name in October 2025. Interview with the Wall Street Journal. Some of the clicks replaced by AI Overviews were “bounce clicks,” she said, users who visited a page and quickly returned to the search without engaging. Removing these visits from the count, the argument goes, made the remaining traffic healthier.
Reid repeated the explanation on Bloombergeach time without providing supporting data.
As Google refined its language, independent data continued to arrive. Penske Media Corporation filed a Federal Court memorandum in February 2026, opposing Google’s motion to dismiss its antitrust lawsuit, arguing that Google had “broken the long-standing bargain” between publishers and the search engine.
Chart beat data shared by Axios in March showed that search SEO traffic fell 60% for small publishers, 47% for mid-sized publishers, and 22% for large publishers over two years. A Ahrefs Analysis of 300,000 keywords measured a 58% lower click-through rate for top-ranking pages when the AI previews appeared.
Then randomization field experience directly tested the principle of bouncing clicks. When researchers removed AI previews from a subset of queries, organic clicks increased by 38%, while user satisfaction did not change. This finding complicates Google’s bounce-click argument. If AI insights primarily removed low-value visits, you would expect a measurable user experience trade-off when removing them. The study found none.
“Here are more links”
This week, Google focused on link visibility. Hema Budaraju, vice president of product management for research, announced five updates to how links appear in Google’s AI generative search features.
Two of the five features address the click surface directly. Inline links are now next to the text they support instead of grouped at the bottom of the response. Proximity between a claim and its source link can increase click-through intent, although it does not change the zero click-through rate for queries fully satisfied by the AI response. A new “Explore New Angles” section suggests related articles at the end of many AI responses, creating a clickable surface for pages that aren’t cited in the body of the response.
Two features expand the content of the AI response itself. Insights from discussions show quotes from Reddit, forums, social media, and what Google calls “other first-hand sources,” along with creator names and community links. Desktop hover previews show the site name or page title when a user hovers over an inline link, although desktop accounts for a smaller share of search behavior than mobile, which may limit the impact.
The fifth feature creates a new integration layer. Subscription labels are deployed in AI Mode and AI Previews, marking links from posts that a user is already paying for. Google reported that users in early tests were “significantly more likely” to click on labeled links, but did not share numbers. Subscription labels also create a new dependency, since publishers must integrate with Google via a submission form for the labels to appear. Google is involved in how subscribers find their paid content in search results.
Amanda Silberling at TechCrunch pointed out that an AI preview offering curated forum quotes with links is starting to resemble the results page Google has offered since 1998. Whether the insights section expands the clickable area or expands the no-click area depends on whether users click on the community links or read the quotes and move on. A user who gets enough of a forum quote in an AI response may have less reason to visit the forum itself. The feature could drive clicks to community threads or reduce the need to click when the quote itself answers the query.
What hasn’t changed
In every phase of Google’s public messaging, one thing hasn’t changed.
Search Console still does not separate clicks from AI previews, AI mode, and traditional search. None of the five features announced this week add this report. A publisher can integrate subscriptions with Google, but still can’t see in GSC if the “Subscriber” label generated incremental clicks, A/B testing subscription integration, or isolate if inline links produce more clicks than citations grouped at the bottom. Customer reports on AI search performance remain directional at best.
For publishers evaluating subscription integration, the tradeoff is clear. A “Subscriber” label on links in AI responses is a potential benefit. A new dependency of integrating with a platform that controls the search experience in which these labels appear is cost. E-commerce appears less directly affected by these specific features, as previous data from Ahrefs and SE Ranking showed that AI insights were triggered on approximately 4% of product queries.
Alphabet reported first-quarter research revenue of $60.4 billion, up 19%and a record volume of queries according to CEO Sundar Pichai. Neither metric tells publishers whether their pages are receiving more or fewer clicks from AI-influenced queries. The network’s revenue, which includes AdSense, fell 4% to $6.97 billion in the same quarter, falling below $7 billion during the reporting period.
Looking to the future
Google I/O is scheduled for May 19-20, and Pichai highlighted it during remarks about Alphabet’s first-quarter results, making it a likely venue for more AI product updates. Whether this includes click or traffic data for AI features is an open question.
The PMC antitrust case continues, the EU is investigating under the DMA and the UK CMA consultation is ongoing. Regulators will look at these features and the traffic data that publishers track in dashboards to assess whether Google has made sufficient concessions for the web ecosystem.
Google’s language regarding AI search clicks has changed four times. The data needed to evaluate whether those clicks are coming hasn’t changed once.
More resources
Featured Image: H_Ko/Shutterstock
