As of October 28, users in more than 100 countries and regions will have access to AI Overviews, Google’s descriptive, productive widget that appears above some Search engine results.

The tech giant first launched this feature in the US and then slowly expanded to other regions. With its latest expansionAI Overviews now available in Canada, Africa and Asia-Pacific regionEurope, Middle East, Colombia, Chile and many more places.

Srinivasan, Google’s VP of Search Quality, wrote: “With AI Overviews in Search, it’s easier than ever for people to find the information they need and explore relevant sites across the web, providing more opportunities to connect with publishers, businesses, and creators .” Cheenu) in Venkatachary Press release.

AI Overviews in Search Continue to Expand Worldwide

When AI Overview launched in May, it was initially only available to users in the US. By August, access was expanded to include: United KingdomIndia, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.

Then in October, Google added the following to AI Overview’s language offerings: It can now parse and answer questions:

• English
• Hindi
• indonesian
• Japanese
• Portuguese
• Spanish

As Google points out, language is not tied to a geographical location. Since AI Overviews appear in Search by default, Google will now be able to accurately claim that 1 billion global users are using AI products.

TO SEE: Google Chrome: Security and UI tips you need to know (TechRepublic Premium)

Competitors and risks of AI in search

AI-generated answers to Search Engine queries have been a hot topic since generative AI became mainstream. Microsoft acquired itself copilot Chatbot to Bing Search. Perplexity AI has developed an interactive, AI-first search bot that draws information from Google and Bing. Arc browser provides AI-generated whitepapers to answer questions in Arc Search.

However, AI-powered search engines show the weaknesses of productive AI in an environment where accurate information is crucial. Google AI Overviews are infamously made up absurd or dangerous answers when first started. Generative AI search functions sometimes struggle to accurately distinguish between current events and past events or answer relatively rare questions.

I found that Google AI Overview tended to answer “how” or “what” questions even if I typed the “why” question. Sometimes it can feel like a buffer between my initial question and the answer Google will once give at a glance. AI Overviews can redirect users to alternative search engines or forums like Reddit, sacrificing context and authority.

“The feedback we received for AI Overviews was overwhelmingly positive,” according to Venkatachary. “People prefer using Search with AI Overviews and find the search results more useful.”

AI Overviews are controversial media publishersThose who are concerned about getting views on their website. In response, Google added source links to the right side of the panel, making it easier for users to find original sources of information. In October, Google added inline links for similar reasons.

“In our testing, these updates resulted in increased traffic to supporting websites compared to previous designs,” Venkatachary wrote.

While it’s unclear whether AI Overview will stick around long-term, Google’s expanded rollout shows there’s a strong existing commitment to the feature.