Google is considering opt out option for British websites to be excluded from AI searches
Google is exploring updates for website owners in the United Kingdom to opt out of AI search results.
Google search results have changed drastically over the last few years due to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Nowadays, AI Overviews are providing the information people search for most of the time.
As the presentation of information has changed, so has the range of controls web publishers have. First, there was robots.txt, which helps website owners to manage how their content appears in Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Later, Google introduced features like Featured Snippets and image previews, and more recently, Google-Extended, which lets sites determine how their content may be used to train Google’s Gemini models.
“Building on this framework, and working with the web ecosystem, we’re now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features. Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content,” Ron Eden, Principal Product Manager at Google, says in a blog post.
This blog post only applies to the United Kingdom (UK), though. It remains unclear whether this feature will be rolled out to other markets.
Google’s announcement comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proposed a package of measures to help businesses and consumers make active and informed choices when using Google’s search service in the UK. The regulator aims to make sure web publishers get “a fairer deal” over how their content is used in Google’s AI Overviews.
Currently, Google collects data from websites for its AI Overviews feature. However, website owners aren’t financially compensated for this, and there’s not much they can do about it.
One option they have is to ask Google not to collect content from their website, but this means that the site will not be mentioned in Google Discover or Search. This choice directly affects how websites are found in Google Search, and thus how much traffic and revenue is generated.
Giving content publishers more choice and transparency over how their content is used in AI Overviews is one of the CMA’s proposals.
“These targeted and proportionate actions would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services, as well as unlocking greater opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector and broader economy. They would also provide a fairer deal for content publishers, particularly news organizations, over how their content is used in Google’s AI Overviews,” Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, says in a statement.
Last year, Google said that the CMA’s package deal would inhibit innovation and growth in the UK. The tech company now seems to have come around.
“We’re optimistic we can find a path forward that provides even more choice to website owners and publishers, while ensuring people continue to get the most helpful and innovative Search experience possible,” Google concludes its blog post.