Google auto-expands AI Overviews, burying organic links

Google has started automatically expanding its AI Overviews to full length for some searches, replacing the collapsed summary and its “Show more” button with a complete AI answer, an “Ask anything” prompt, and only then the list of links. Confirmed by Google to The Verge on 28 August 2026, the change pushes organic results, including brands’ own pages and location links, further down the results page. For multi-location brands, it sharpens a shift already under way: the AI answer, not the classic blue links, is now the first thing most searchers see.

What happened

Google confirmed the behaviour to The Verge: for some queries, AI Overviews may expand on their own where Google’s systems judge it most useful. Instead of a short overview with a “Show more” button, the searcher sees the full response at the top of the page, an “Ask anything” box beneath it, and the traditional list of links pushed below that. Google said the expansion is dynamic, and that if a user has already begun scrolling past the overview it cancels the expansion so they do not lose their place. Google has not published the exact criteria that trigger a full expansion, and The Verge reported the behaviour was inconsistent across searches and browsers during its testing.

“For some queries, AI Overviews may dynamically expand for topics where our systems determine it’s most useful for people. Our research has shown that with this dynamic experience, users find Search more helpful and engage deeper in follow-up exploration.”

Jennifer Kutz, Google spokesperson, to The Verge

Why it matters

When the AI Overview fills the top of the page by default, the organic results that once sat closer to the top move further out of sight. This is the same pressure that has built since AI Overviews launched, now applied automatically rather than only when a searcher taps “Show more”. The practical effect is fewer people scrolling to the classic ten blue links, and more answers being read, and decisions being made, inside Google’s own summary. A brand described accurately in that summary wins the moment; one that is absent, or described from stale data, loses it before a click was ever on the table.

What this means for multi-location brands

For a central team managing hundreds or thousands of locations, this raises the stakes on being present in the AI answer rather than only in the links beneath it. Two things matter more as a result. First, the accuracy of the location data Google reads: opening hours, addresses, services and attributes are what an AI Overview draws on to describe a specific store, and errors surface directly in the answer. Keeping that data correct across every location through structured listings management is now visibility work, not just housekeeping. Second, understanding how AI surfaces actually present each location: Places AI exists to show how answer engines describe a brand’s sites, so a team can see where it is quoted and where it is missing. Beyond the data, the discipline is generative engine optimization: structuring the information about each location so an AI answer can lift and attribute it correctly, part of learning to rank in AI search results rather than only in the links below them.

The bottom line

Auto-expanding AI Overviews make the AI answer the default first impression for more searches, and push a brand’s own pages further down. The location data that feeds those answers is now the front line of search visibility. Brands that keep it accurate and watch how AI describes each site will hold their place in the answer; brands that rely on the links below it will find fewer people ever scroll far enough to see them.