Surprise, surprise, as I called it, Google is expanding AI Overviews into more regions. I mean, we saw this being leaked/tested a couple of weeks ago, so it is not shocking news. But at I/O, Google said AI Overviews are "now available in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages, with support added for Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Urdu and more."
The more interesting news is that Google added that AI Overviews leads to people searching more - 10% more. "Al Overviews is driving over 10% increase in usage of Google for the types of queries that show Al Overviews," Hema Budaraju, Vice President, Product Management, Search said.
"This means that once people use Al Overviews, they are coming to do more of these types of queries, and what's particularly exciting is how this growth increases over time," Hema Budaraju added.
I asked Hema Budaraju after the I/O keynote if they know people stay longer on sites, then they must know the click-through rate and clicks to sites with AI Overviews compared to them without. I asked if we can get data on that in general, since we won't get it in Search Console - and I got a bunch of PR spin and then a no comment on such data. But she did say she will pass along the feedback.
Plus, AI Overviews are now using a custom version of Gemini, Gemini 2.5, to power the answers. Google said, "starting this week, we're bringing a custom version of Gemini 2.5, our most intelligent model, to Al Overviews in the U.S. so Search can tackle even harder questions."
Yes, AI Mode, which expanded to all US users, is also using Gemini 2.5.
To see all the supported languages, countries and territories, go to this help document.
Here is the video of the keynote:
I was there live, so here are some tweets I posted:
#googleio on AI Overviews making searchers happy https://t.co/xBomuRN8TL pic.twitter.com/P5sQPWsEvm
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 20, 2025
Google AI Overviews served to 1.5 billion users monthly #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/9NH3FQuwhF
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 20, 2025
Looks like @sundarpichai showed up for #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/WJHlNtl0HC
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 20, 2025
Forum discussion at X.
