Google is updating AI Overviews and AI Mode, the AI-generated portions of its search engine, to highlight sources in new ways, and interestingly, more prominently feature first-hand accounts from forums, social media and Reddit.
Via a new “Expert Advice” section that can appear in AI responses, Google will display “a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media and other firsthand sources.” In the sample screenshot the company provided, quotes from forums, WordPress blogs and Reddit were arranged above links to their respective sources. Google plans to add more context to these links, too, showing “a creator’s name, handle or community name,” so you can judge what you might want to click through and read from a glance.
Google will also start recommending in-depth articles at the end of AI responses for further exploration of a given topic, and link to more sources directly in its generated answers rather than just at the end. If you subscribe to any publications, AI responses will also highlight sources from the subscriptions you link to your Google account.
Given the rapid progress of AI in general, AI Overviews and AI Mode have been pretty consistently iterated on since Google launched them in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Pulling from Reddit and other online social platforms isn’t exactly a new strategy for the company, either — at least one early AI Overview hallucination was caused by information from Reddit. It is perhaps telling Google plans to cite the platform more prominently now, though, because Reddit is considered by some to be a more useful source of information than Google. Even more this update, the search engine has been prominently featuring Reddit links in standard search results.
Whether adding more links and recommending long-form reporting makes a meaningful difference for the dwindling number of publications Google pulls from is another story, however. As of 2025, Google claimed that its AI search tools were leading to more searches and more “high-quality clicks” on the websites it cites. Regardless of how much the company tinkers with its AI responses, though, one outcome of AI Overviews and AI Mode is the creation of scenarios where you don’t have to click away to another website at all, because Google answered your question for you.
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