What you need to know
- Google’s VP for Search, Robby Stein, shared what users can expect from an update to links in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- Now, “groups of links” will be housed in a floating sub-menu when hovering over AI Overview or AI Mode’s link icon (which has also changed to be more noticeable).
- Previous updates to AI Mode turned it into a calling personal assistant for booking appointments, while AI Overviews received Gemini 3 this year.
Google has started rolling out a small, but potentially useful change to the way AI Mode and AI Overviews operate with links in Search.
On X, Google’s VP for Search, Robby Stein, posted details about what users can expect from AI Overview’s and AI Mode’s change to links this week (via 9to5Google). Stein announces that “groups of links” in the respective areas in Search will now “appear in a pop-up as you hover over them.” This is a change that’s rolling out only for desktop users, so you’ll still have to interact with links the normal way (by tapping) on your phone.
Stein says this change has the thought of getting users into their sources much faster. This update is paired with more “descriptive and prominent link icons,” too. This particular change is coming to both desktop and mobile. The Google exec’s screenshot gives more substance to this update. Hovering over the link icon, which will now display the website’s logo of the first source (and its name), will produce a floating sub-menu.
For AI Mode’s response, the sub-menu showed three links, which is what the AI used to formulate its response. Users can mouse over these links to open them in new tabs. Users have responded to Stein’s post, stating that they’ve started seeing it appear on their devices late this week.
It’s the little things
One of the biggest updates hit Google’s AI Mode last summer, and that was the patch that turned it into your personal assistant. When searching for businesses, in the event that you’d want to book an appointment, AI Mode can call around for the user for more information. The company will require users to fill out a short form, so the AI knows everything you’d normally ask if you were making calls. Afterward, it will provide an “update” with everything it found out on your behalf.
Early this year, Google empowered AI Overviews with Gemini 3, its latest AI model. One of its highlights was that AI Overviews will now let users ask follow-up questions much faster than before. Moreover, it will keep the context of your initial query in mind for “relevance.”
Android Central’s Take
Leaning on AI for trivial matters like this, seems okay, in my opinion. In fact, you’re not necessarily leaning on it in Google Search’s case, as it automatically provides these AI Overviews, AI Mode mash-ups. Nevertheless, it’s always wise to click those source links. The AI is “attempting” to provide the user with what it deems to be relevant information based on their query. And while it does a decent job, you never know. AI’s not perfect, it’s not a human hand getting in their to read and understand. So, it’s a good rule of thumb: always check its sources. Google’s latest update makes that so much eaiser.
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