Google's AI-generated search answers are quickly becoming the standard way people find information online, regardless of whether they want that change. According to a fresh analysis from market intelligence firm Similarweb, the company's AI Overviews now appear in 43% of all searches. That figure stood at just 15% one year ago.
AI Mode visits surge
The data also shows that visits to Google's more conversational AI Mode have climbed sharply. In June 2025, the feature recorded 126 million visits. By May 2026, that number had reached 279 million.
Similarweb described what started as an AI layer placed on top of traditional search results as now being an integral part of the search experience itself. Google increasingly drops users directly into AI Overviews, where they can then continue their research using the more interactive AI Mode.
Longer queries, more time on Google
The findings point to a fundamental shift in how people search the web. In the past, Google provided a simple list of blue links that users clicked to visit other websites. Now Google itself is becoming the destination, pulling answers and information from the sites it indexes and presenting them directly in its own interface.
This change appears to increase the amount of time people spend on Google's platform rather than using it only as a tool to discover other websites. Similarweb's data indicates that the average length of Google searches has risen over the past year. That suggests users are replacing short, keyword-based queries with longer, more natural conversational questions designed for AI systems.
Publishers feel the pinch
This trend has not been well received by publishers, who are losing referral traffic as AI citations often do not lead to clicks. Last year, Similarweb highlighted how devastating this shift was for news publishers in particular.
More recently, tech infrastructure company Cloudflare introduced tools that let publishers fight back. Those tools allow website owners to block AI crawlers unless the AI companies pay for access to their content through Cloudflare's marketplace.
Stay ahead of the AI curve
The most important updates, news, and content — delivered weekly.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Citations on the rise, but still low
Even though AI citations do not always result in users clicking through to a destination, the number of AI responses that include a citation has increased more than fivefold over the past year, according to Similarweb's new report.
However, only 6.8% of U.S. ChatGPT desktop queries included citations as of May 2026, despite that growth. Some industries fare better than others. Travel, retail, and sports queries generate cited responses more frequently.
Some hope for publishers
There is a glimmer of hope for publishers, at least when it comes to ChatGPT. U.S. desktop referrals from ChatGPT improved after a May 7 search update. The proportion of visits landing on webpages more than doubled from 25% in March 2026 to nearly 60% by May 30, 2026.
This suggests that users are taking advantage of the more prominent blue links within AI-driven search results when those links are available.
The bigger picture
Even with those improvements, the larger AI search trend remains unchanged. Google is transforming itself from a gateway to the wider web into a destination in its own right.