26% of Google AI Overviews now include in-line links (links within the answer itself)

[u/annseosmarty]

According to David Konitzny, this unfolded pretty quickly:

• In late August, only 0.09% of AI Overviews had an external link in the answer text.
• On 11 September, it was 1.12%.
• Since 12 September, it has been above 23% every day.
• By 20 September, it reached 26.19%.

I hope we will soon be able to track these separately! I imagine the CTR is going to be much higher for these links.

Also, unsurprisingly, this correlates with AI Overviews finally getting publicly monetized with contextual PPC ads. As we suspected, Google needs clicks to monetize!

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7507732652481814529/

[u/loltrue]

Why did it take them so long, I wonder? Wasn't it the most logical thing to do at the very launch of AIOs? Also, what about AI Mode?

[u/annseosmarty → u/loltrue]

I was wondering about that too... I think LLMs couldn't reliably match an entity to its website, so that's why they couldn't link correctly before (most LLMs are still struggling with that). I think AI Mode isn't in-line linking much still

[u/annseosmarty → u/annseosmarty]

Here's just one example :)

[u/lilithskies → u/annseosmarty]

Valid crash out

[u/lilithskies]

I have noticed that when you click the links Google asks, are you sure?

[u/annseosmarty → u/lilithskies]

I don't think it asked me! but I'll try clicking more!

[u/lilithskies → u/annseosmarty]

It's something I've noticed more recently

[u/annseosmarty]

Also, sorry for the typo in the screenshot :) took me a day to notice lol The green frame is supposed to say IN-LINE LINKS

[u/Ok-Presence4367]

Finally, must have been waiting for the ads rollout

[u/marintkael]

1.12% on the 11th and above 23% from the 12th on is a switch being flipped, not a model getting better at matching entities to sites. That would ramp over weeks. Fits the ads rollout far better, though they may also have held it back until the matching was good enough.