Google is building a Search Console control that lets sites exclude their content from its AI features, following the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority's first conduct requirement on the company, Digiday reports. The ruling applied only to the U.K., but Google opened the control to sites worldwide on August 31. Page-level grounding controls are due by March 3, 2027. The controls are bundled, so a site cannot opt out of AI Mode or AI Overviews individually.
Google shares impression data on how often content appears in AI features, but not click data. It must give click data to U.K. publishers by December 3 and has not confirmed whether it will do so globally. Chris Dicker, CEO of Candr Media, said click data is "the metric that will determine whether they turn it off or not" and that publishers are holding off until they see it. He expects Google to share it in the coming weeks, ahead of Black Friday.
Meanwhile, Google updated AI Mode and AI Overviews to show links more often and more prominently, added article carousels and related-story links, and says its Preferred Sources feature has grown sevenfold this year. David Buttle, founder of publisher coalition SPUR, said Google aims to send enough traffic that sites stay opted in voluntarily, and that publishers are unlikely to opt out without more granular controls. Some publishers expect excluded sites to drop out of the Top Stories carousel inside AI Overviews; Google has not said how the control treats it.
The Professional Publishers Association is pressing the CMA to make Google unbundle the controls by feature.