Earlier this month, we reported that Google was testing three-different citation and link formats in the Search Generative Experience AI-generated answer. It seems that as of yesterday, Google has pulled back that test and removed the links from those answers.
Britney Muller noticed they went away yesterday afternoon and posted about it on Twitter. "Have GSE content/citation links been removed," Muller asked. They do seem to have been removed.
I cannot see links in the AI-generated SGE answers either on mobile or desktop in any of the cases I posted on my original story. I tried countless examples and I came up with nothing. Either all of us were removed from this test or Google stopped testing links in SGE results.
Here are two examples from my original story.
Without links (what I see today):
With links (what I saw during the test):
Without links (what I see today):
With links (what I saw during the test):
Again, the same on mobile as well. Lily Ray also confirmed she no longer sees the links. Kenichi Suzuki also noticed this.
Have GSE content/citation links been removed?
β Britney Muller πΊπ¦ (@BritneyMuller) August 17, 2023
Maybe an okay thing until better baked out. Noticed soo many that were wrong/out of context (on-page text didn't support the GSE content). cc @JohnMu @lilyraynyc @rustybrick
Yeah, I think I got moved into a different test group today.
β Lily Ray π (@lilyraynyc) August 17, 2023
@rustybrick @lilyraynyc @glenngabe The outbound links have disappeared from my SGE. Have you noticed this happening with your search results as well?https://t.co/lmhJmThlEm pic.twitter.com/CVO9P6Enz2
β Kenichi Suzukiπ«ι΄ζ¨θ¬δΈ (@suzukik) August 17, 2023
I guess SGE decided to test turning off links today.
β Lily Ray π (@lilyraynyc) August 17, 2023
If (and only if!) you agree that this is a bad move, please join me in submitting feedback to Google. Sigh.
h/t @bloggersarvesh who first noticed this pic.twitter.com/n8KW3rH6PM
I wonder if Google will bring these links back or they decided not to show them anymore and no longer continue to the test?
Update: Google's Search Liaison replied on Twitter saying, "We've always had corroborating links. That hasn't changed. The carousel that we launched with is still there; you can use the menu icon to open for links to appear inline. That said, the experimenting we've done with different formats is not over so changes will continue."
We've always had corroborating links. That hasn't changed. The carousel that we launched with is still there; you can use the menu icon to open for links to appear inline. That said, the experimenting we've done with different formats is not over so changes will continue.
β Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 18, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update 2: Here is a new form of how they are showing links, as described by Sullivan in the first update above:
I am still seeing links in SGE - google app on mobile. pic.twitter.com/aC4zBhtUj3
β Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) August 19, 2023
This is on desktop when I click on the (v) is SGE pic.twitter.com/C0ffLEQ77h
β Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) August 20, 2023
After getting rid of source links in SGE, Google is now breaking apart responses and showing sources under dropdowns.
β Eli Schwartz (@5le) August 22, 2023
cc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/2izB8bWJNs
Whoa, links are back in SGE for me! At least for now. :) @rustybrick @lilyraynyc pic.twitter.com/l4CMQD18jW
β Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 24, 2023
Yep, they've been toggling on and off for me too. Currently see the same drop-down format for about 3-4 days. It's pretty noisy.
β Lily Ray π (@lilyraynyc) August 24, 2023
(BTW, these results are *terrible*) pic.twitter.com/RBdK8cK5HA
FYI - Google Search Generative Experience "links" are still being tested in the card format for some - I have been adding examples of them at https://t.co/OL76ZHko2R https://t.co/4QGRQv4WhX pic.twitter.com/4hCkWnjxuq
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 24, 2023
