Google Tests AI Search Opt-Out as Top Stories Move Inside AI Overviews
Google began testing a Search Console control on June 3 that lets a subset of UK website owners leave AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI features in Discover without leaving traditional Search. The tradeoff grew more concrete on July 28, when NewzDash reported that Top Stories appeared inside AI Overviews in 15.5% of its tracked US cases and 17.46% of UK cases where Top Stories were shown.
Google began testing a Search Console control on June 3 that lets a subset of UK website owners exclude their links and content from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover without leaving traditional Search. Google says sites that opt out will lose traffic and impressions from those generative features, but the choice will not be used as a ranking signal outside them.
The test accompanied a UK Competition and Markets Authority requirement giving publishers more control over the use of their content in AI search. The CMA gave Google nine months to implement all required changes, while Google said it would test the control in the UK before making it available more broadly. A global rollout is planned, not yet complete.
What the control separates
The Search Console setting is different from Google-Extended. Google-Extended governs specified uses of crawled content for model training and grounding; it does not remove a site from AI Overviews or AI Mode. The new Search control determines whether a site's links and content can appear in Google's covered generative Search features.
The CMA also requires clearer attribution and links in AI-generated search results and an option for publishers to prevent their content from being used for model fine-tuning. Those obligations arise from the UK regulatory decision even though Google says it intends to expand the Search Console control beyond the UK after testing.
Top Stories sharpen the tradeoff
NewzDash reported on July 28 that Top Stories carousels were appearing inside AI Overviews for tracked trending-news searches in the US and UK. Among results in its dataset where Google showed Top Stories, 15.5% of US cases and 17.46% of UK cases placed the carousel inside the AI Overview rather than as a separate module.
NewzDash observed an either-or placement: the carousel appeared inside the AI Overview or as a standalone Top Stories module, not in both positions for the same result. It also cautioned that it did not have comparative click-through data proving the embedded placement generated more clicks.
That distinction matters for news publishers. Opting out may prevent generative summaries from using a site's content, but it can also remove the site's eligibility for a prominent headline, image, brand, and link placement when Top Stories is embedded in an AI Overview.
Measurement is still incomplete
Digiday reported that Google provides AI-feature impression information but not AI-specific click data. Without comparable click reporting, publishers cannot directly measure whether AI Overviews refer readers or satisfy queries without a visit.
For search and data teams, the decision is therefore a controlled measurement problem rather than a universal rule. Query type, geography, news category, AI-feature visibility, first-party referrals, and downstream conversions all matter. The most defensible conclusion today is narrower: the new control creates a real choice, but the traffic cost of using it remains difficult to quantify.
Key Points
- 1Google began testing the opt-out with a subset of UK website owners on June 3 and says broader availability will follow testing.
- 2NewzDash found Top Stories inside AI Overviews in 15.5% of tracked US and 17.46% of UK cases where Top Stories appeared.
- 3Publishers still lack AI-specific click data needed to compare the traffic consequences of opting in or out.
Scoring Rationale
The CMA-backed control gives publishers a distinct governance choice for Google's generative Search features while preserving traditional Search eligibility. New Top Stories placement data makes the visibility tradeoff material for news, SEO, and analytics teams, but absent AI-specific click reporting limits confident impact measurement.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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