Google expands AI Overviews to more European markets

Google has expanded its AI Overviews feature to nine European countries, marking a significant advancement in the company's integration of artificial intelligence into its core search product. The announcement comes one week after the European Commission released preliminary findings that Alphabet, Google's parent company, may be violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) through preferential treatment of its own services in search results.

Google officially launched AI Overviews in Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland on March 26, 2025. The feature, which provides AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, will be available in multiple languages depending on the region:

• Germany (German and English)
• Belgium (English only at launch)
• Ireland (English)
• Italy (Italian and English)
• Austria (German and English)
• Poland (Polish and English)
• Portugal (Portuguese and English)
• Spain (Spanish and English)
• Switzerland (English, French, German, and Italian)

This European expansion follows Google's introduction of AI Overviews to over 100 countries in October 2024, a move that brought the feature to more than one billion users globally. Prior to that, AI Overviews had initially launched in the United States after extensive testing under the Search Generative Experience (SGE) program.

How AI Overviews work

AI Overviews appear at the top of Google search results for certain queries, providing users with AI-generated summaries that aim to directly answer their questions. The system uses Google's Gemini language model to create these summaries based on information from various web sources.

According to Hema Budaraju, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, AI Overviews are designed to make finding information easier: "Following extensive testing and positive user feedback, signed-in users aged 18+ in these countries will now see AI Overviews appear when our systems determine they will be most helpful, featuring prominent links to the web so people can easily learn more."

For users in these European regions, the feature will only be displayed to signed-in users aged 18 and older, and only when Google's algorithms determine that an AI-generated summary would be the most helpful response to a particular query.

Technical implementation and user experience

The implementation includes several technical aspects worth noting:

1. Language support: Each country receives support for local languages alongside English, with Switzerland offering the most extensive language options (four languages).
2. User restrictions: Unlike some regions where AI Overviews are available to all users, the European implementation requires users to be both signed in and over 18 years of age.
3. Contextual display: Google's systems determine when AI Overviews will appear, showing them only for queries where the company determines they would provide the most value.
4. Source attribution: Each AI Overview includes prominent links to the web sources used to generate the summary, allowing users to explore topics in greater depth on the original websites.

Potential regulatory challenges

The timing of this expansion is particularly notable as it comes just one week after the European Commission published preliminary findings regarding Google's compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

According to the Commission's March 19 press release, Alphabet may be failing to comply with Article 6(5) of the DMA, which prohibits gatekeepers from treating their own services more favorably than similar third-party services. The Commission's preliminary view states: "Alphabet treats its own services, such as shopping, hotel booking, transport, or financial and sports results, more favourably in Google Search results than similar services offered by third parties."

The Commission further specified that Google gives "more prominent treatment compared to others by displaying them at the top of Google Search results or on dedicated spaces, with enhanced visual formats and filtering mechanisms."

This raises questions about how AI Overviews might interact with these regulatory concerns, as the feature inherently places Google-generated content at the top of search results.

Industry response

The expansion has generated significant discussion among search industry professionals and legal experts. Luiza Jarovsky, co-founder of AI Tech Privacy and a PhD researcher specializing in AI governance, questioned whether AI Overviews could withstand legal scrutiny in the EU.

"I don't think Google's AI Mode will survive legal scrutiny in the EU," Jarovsky wrote on March 26. She specifically noted that as AI Overviews rely on Google's own Gemini model to generate outputs, "it's unclear to me how it will be considered compliant with the DMA, which says that Google cannot continuously favor its products and services."

Jarovsky highlighted that Google's dominant position in the search market—with approximately 89.73% global market share—means that integrating its AI model directly into search results could result in "hundreds of millions of people [who] will ONLY see Google-generated results."

Impact on website publishers

Website publishers and SEO professionals are closely monitoring the expansion, as AI Overviews have the potential to significantly impact traffic patterns. Early data from markets where AI Overviews have already launched suggest varied effects on website traffic.

When AI Overviews first launched in the United States, some publishers reported traffic reductions as high as 90% for pages that previously ranked highly for queries now answered directly by AI summaries. More recent studies have indicated traffic losses ranging from 15% to 67%, though these figures continue to fluctuate as Google adjusts the feature's implementation.

According to a comment from a European website owner in response to the announcement: "Now this has finally arrived in my country and therefore also in my market. Let's see how that will affect my figures. Yesterday was a good day. I'm curious to see what the next few days will be like."

The same commenter noted a potential limitation that might mitigate some traffic impacts: "Does anyone know if other countries also have this limitation that AIO is only shown to logged-in Google users over 18? That gives me a glimmer of hope that the effects won't be quite as devastating as I've heard from webmasters in other countries over the last few months."

Technical measures for publishers

For publishers concerned about their content appearing in AI Overviews, Google has provided several technical options. The company updated its robots meta documentation to clarify that the "nosnippet" directive prevents content from being used as direct input for AI Overviews.

However, using this directive also prevents content from appearing in other Google services, including web search snippets, Google Images, and Discover features, potentially limiting visibility across multiple channels.

Google has also published a new help document specifically addressing preview controls for AI Overviews, advising publishers to implement standard preview controls if they wish to restrict how their content appears in these summaries.

Future outlook

While Google has not announced specific plans for further expansion, the pattern of deployment suggests the company intends to continue rolling out AI Overviews globally where regulatory environments permit.

The expansion comes at a time of increasing competitive pressure in the AI search space, with competitors like Microsoft's Bing Chat (rebranded as Copilot), Perplexity, and potentially an upcoming collaboration between Apple and OpenAI.

For European users, the immediate impact will be a significantly altered search experience that prioritizes direct answers over traditional lists of links. For regulatory authorities, particularly the European Commission, this expansion provides a concrete implementation to assess against the DMA's requirements for fair treatment of third-party services.

Timeline of Google AI Overviews developments

• May 2023: Google introduces Search Generative Experience (SGE) in Google Labs, allowing limited users to test AI-generated search results
• May 2024: Google officially launches AI Overviews in the United States, replacing SGE
• October 2024: AI Overviews expands to over 100 countries, reaching more than 1 billion users
• March 19, 2025: European Commission sends preliminary findings to Alphabet regarding potential DMA violations in Google Search
• March 26, 2025: Google expands AI Overviews to nine European countries, including Germany, Spain, and Italy
• March 26-27, 2025: Industry discussions continue about regulatory compliance and potential impacts on publishers