Google says it has made "continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links" across its AI search experiences, and it's now placing those links higher up in responses more often. Hema Budaraju, VP of Product Management, laid out five changes to how links appear in AI Mode and AI Overviews (Google's AI-generated answer surfaces) in a blog post this week. Google didn't quantify the size of the increase.

The moves continue work Google signaled in May, when it said users would see more inline links displayed directly next to relevant text in AI-generated responses.

What are the five changes?

• More inline links, placed higher in AI responses than before.
• A test of a new section at the top of certain responses linking to official sites.
• End-of-response links get image thumbnails and a design Google calls "more clickable."
• Carousels for timely articles expand to more locations and languages.
• Creator and publisher names on AI Mode video results now link to Search profiles, in testing this week.

How will the official-site section work?

Google will test a format for task-based searches where only one or two official sources of information exist — think limited-resource queries where an authoritative site dominates. In those cases, results from the official sources would appear at the very beginning of the response, and Google would add context explaining why each link is a good resource.

That's a confirmed Google announcement, but it's a test — the post doesn't say when or if it will expand.

What's happening with carousels and Preferred Sources?

The carousels for timely articles, which highlight a user's Preferred Sources, are rolling out now to more locations and languages. Google didn't name them.

Preferred Sources lets users pick sites they want to see more of in search. Google says usage of the feature has grown to more than seven times what it was at the beginning of the year. The post gives no absolute user count and doesn't explain how Google measured the increase.

According to Google's documentation, a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to qualify as a Preferred Source in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google also provides a button and a deep link publishers can use to ask readers to add their site.

What do profile links mean for publishers?

This week, Google began testing a way for AI Mode users to click a creator or publisher name within a video result and reach that entity's Search profile. Search profiles, introduced in June, aggregate a creator's articles, videos and social posts in one place.

The eligibility bar is specific. As of Google's Help Page checked October 15, Search profiles are available in the US, Canada and India to creators and publishers with at least 10,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, X or TikTok, using a Google Account owned by someone 18 or older. The Help Page did not list AI Mode as a place profiles can surface — the test predates any documentation update.

What doesn't change?

Ranking reports, for one. Search Console assigns all links within a given AI Overview that overview's single position in results, so moving an inline link higher in the response doesn't by itself change its reported position. Publishers watching Search Console data won't see this shift reflected there.

What to watch next

The official-site section and AI Mode profile links are both in testing with no stated timeline. The carousel expansion is live now, so the practical next step is checking AI Search results in the locations and languages you serve to catch when it arrives.