Google confirmed on August 28, 2026 that AI Overviews expand automatically for some search queries, loading at full length and skipping the “Show more” click, while “Ask anything” loads open by default. Both push the ten standard results further down the page. Google would not say what share of queries this affects, and the timing falls outside a separate five-day logging error in its Generative AI report.
From a Snippet to a Full Answer
Until now, a click on “Show more” was required to expand a truncated AI Overview snippet into the full response. A Google spokesperson gave Search Engine Roundtable this statement, which also appears in Search Engine Land’s report:
“For some queries, AI Overviews may dynamically expand for topics where our systems determine it’s most useful for people. Our research has shown that with this dynamic experience, users find Search more helpful and engage deeper in follow-up exploration.”
— Google spokesperson, quoted by Search Engine Roundtable
Google’s own phrasing is “may dynamically expand.” Barry Schwartz, who covered it for Search Engine Roundtable, calls it something Google is testing. Google would not say whether it will expand to more queries over time.
What changed in Google’s AI Overviews?
As of August 28, 2026, Google has confirmed that for some search queries the AI Overview loads already expanded, replacing a snippet that sat behind a “Show more” click. The “Ask anything” box beneath it loads open by default too, pushing standard search results further down the page. Google has not said which queries qualify beyond “topics where our systems determine it’s most useful,” and it would not say what share of queries is affected.
A Reply on X and a Scroll That Cancels the Expansion
Chris Long spotted it first, in a post on X on August 27, 2026 that both trade outlets quote as “Holy moly SEOs: Google is now revealing the AI Mode prompt box BY DEFAULT for some queries” and “This is how Google continues to push AI Mode as the default search experience.” Robby Stein of Google replied the next day, in a post Search Engine Roundtable relays in a truncated embed:
“Hey Barry, jumping in here with more context, AI Overviews only dynamically expand for topics where our systems determine it to be most useful. If you’ve already started scrolling, the expansion stops to keep your place. We’re always testing and tuning these experiences, so […]”
— Robby Stein of Google, in a post relayed by Search Engine Roundtable
An Impression Rule Written Around a Click That Stopped Happening
Google’s Search Console help page documents impressions, and its rule for expanding widgets is specific: inside a carousel or an FAQ result, “the item must typically be scrolled into view within the carousel, or expanded by a click, to register an impression.” For AI Overviews, the impression line on the same page reads, in full: “Standard impression rules apply.” Google now performs that expansion itself, and it has not published how an expansion nobody clicked gets counted.
The same page treats a follow-up inside AI Mode as a new query: “when a user asks a follow-up question within AI Mode, they are essentially performing a new query. All impression, position, and click data in the new response are counted as coming from this new user query.” An “Ask anything” box that loads open by default sits one keystroke from that boundary.
| Surface | What Google documents about impressions |
|---|---|
| Standard results | Counted whether or not scrolled into view, as long as no click is needed to see more results |
| Expanding widget (carousel, FAQ) | Item must typically be scrolled into view within the widget, or expanded by a click |
| AI Overviews | “Standard impression rules apply”; the whole AI Overview holds one position and every link in it shares that position |
| AI Mode follow-up | Treated as a new query; impression, position and click data belong to the new query |
A One-Metric Report, and a Five-Day Window Google Has Now Bounded
Checking this means opening Search Console’s Generative AI performance report. elsop noted on August 12 that the report ships exactly one metric, impressions, with no clicks, queries or position to check it against. elsop also reported on August 18 that Google’s Data anomalies page had flagged a logging error undercounting Generative AI report impressions starting August 13, 2026. Google has since closed that entry: as of August 30, 2026, it bounds the window to August 13-17, 2026, five days, dropping “ongoing.” The expansion, spotted August 27 and confirmed August 28, falls outside that window.
The trap that remains: comparing report impressions before and after the expansion against a mid-August baseline measures them against five days Google documents as under-logged. So log the date a page first shows the expanded layout instead of reading impression movement as a signal.
Sources: Google Search Console Help, “Performance report data”; Search Engine Land on Google dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries.
