Google is testing a swap of the "Show more" button that appears beneath AI Overviews for a "Loading..." button, according to screenshots and video captured by two independent search watchers this week.

Sachin Patel first spotted the variant and posted a screenshot on X and Search Engine Watch. Khushal Bherwani independently captured the same test and shared a video on X, showing the "Loading..." label in place of the familiar "Show more" control at the bottom of the AI Overview block.

This is a limited experiment, not a confirmed rollout. Attempts to replicate the interface were unsuccessful; the standard "Show more" button still renders in testing. Google has made no public statement about the change, so everything known about it comes from user interface sightings — tool-signal-level evidence, not an official announcement.

Second AI Overview button test this year

The "Loading..." experiment is not the first change Google has tried on this element. Earlier in 2025, Google tested "Enter AI Mode" as the button text under AI Overviews. That wording did not survive the test phase and never reached broad rollout.

The pattern shows Google actively iterating on what sits at the bottom of the AI Overview module — the point where the generated summary ends and the searcher decides whether to expand the result or continue into another surface. Button copy at that junction shapes how users move between Google's AI-generated answers, the traditional organic results below, and the fuller AI Mode experience.

A "Show more" label is an explicit invitation: click to expand additional content. A "Loading..." label reads differently — it signals ongoing generation rather than offering a clear affordance. Whether that difference meaningfully changes click behavior on AI Overviews is unknown, and Google has published no data on it.

What this means for publishers and SEOs

For site owners tracking AI Overview traffic, the test matters for one reason: the expansion control is the main interactive element between the AI summary and the cited sources beneath it. Any change to how that control is labeled could shift how often searchers expand an AI Overview and reach publisher links.

There is no evidence yet that the "Loading..." variant affects rankings, citations, or traffic. It is a user interface test only. But interface tests at this scale often precede broader changes to how AI Overviews behave, and the earlier "Enter AI Mode" test shows Google has explored pushing AI Overview viewers directly into its standalone AI chat product from the search results page.

Publishers in verticals heavily exposed to AI Overviews — informational queries in health, finance, tech, and how-to content — have the most to watch here, since expansion behavior directly determines whether their links get seen.

Signal, not statement

To separate what is confirmed from what is not: Google has confirmed nothing about this test. The evidence consists of two independent screenshots and a screen recording, plus one failed replication attempt that returned the standard "Show more" button. That places this firmly in the category of a live interface experiment visible to a small percentage of users.

The "Enter AI Mode" test from earlier this year carries the same status — spotted in the wild, never confirmed by Google, and ultimately abandoned.

What to watch next

Monitor the bottom of the AI Overview block over the coming weeks for wider availability of the "Loading..." label, and watch whether Google revives AI Mode entry points inside search results. If the button text settles into a permanent form, the next question will be whether expansion rates on AI Overviews — and the click-through to cited publishers beneath them — move with it.