Meet AI Overviews in This Definitive Guide to Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE)

[shukla7789]

Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) — launched as AI Overviews on May 14, 2024 — generates AI-powered snapshots in Google Search that answers a user’s search while linking to cited sources from the web.



These snapshots pose a risk to your organic traffic, though, making it critical to understand the meaning of Google’s SGE, plus the dos and don’ts of optimizing your site for AI search results.

Keep reading to get started (and join WebFX’s Marketing Manager Insider for the latest updates on how we’re approaching AI Overviews and other digital marketing challenges)!

What is Google SGE?
Google SGE, also known as AI Overviews, is an experimental overseas chinese in europe data Search feature from Google Labs that uses generative AI to answer a user’s search. These answers appear at the top of the search results, and are trained on a variety of content from across the Internet, including content from forums like Reddit.

google sge snippet

How to turn on Google SGE
Use the following steps to turn on Google SGE:

Create or login to your Google Account
Visit https://labs.google.com/search/
Select the relevant experiment
Turn the experiment on
Note: This experiment is not available in all countries.

What are AI Overviews?
AI Overview example

AI Overviews, also known as Search Generative Experience, are AI-powered snapshots that use generative AI to answer user queries while linking to referenced sources. AI Overviews appear above organic search results.

How to access AI Overviews
Use the following steps to access AI Overviews:

Create a Google Account
Sign in to your Google Account
Start searching!
Note: AI Overviews cannot be turned off.

Google SGE vs. AI Overviews
While Google SGE and AI Overviews are used interchangeably, the two are different. Google SGE is the Google Labs version of AI Overviews, and includes features unavailable in AI Overviews, like:

Follow-up questions: Keep your search experience going through AI-generated follow-up questions to search queries.
Converse: Chat directly with Google through SGE’s conversational mode. Here, original queries are answered and users can ask follow-up questions to deepen their search.