Google is rolling out new, more visible links within AI Overviews and AI Mode. These new link cards appear in a pop-up window when you hover over them on desktop. They also show more prominent details about the website.

Google was testing these earlier and now this new style is live.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of these new link pop up menus on hover:

What Google said. Google’s Robby Stein posted on X saying:

• “New on Search: In AI Overviews and AI Mode, groups of links will automatically appear in a pop-up as you hover over them on desktop, so you can jump right into a website to learn more. And we’ll show more descriptive and prominent link icons within the response across both desktop and mobile.”
• “Our testing shows this new UI is more engaging, making it easier to get to great content across the web.”

Why we care. This new style does appear to encourage more clicks to websites and I do hope that we will see more traffic from Google’s AI experiences from these changes.

Of course, we still have no way to measure this in Search Console.

Over two months ago, Google began testing its AI-powered configuration tool. It allows you to ask AI questions about the Google Search Console performance reports and it would bring back answers for you. Well, Google is now rolling out this tool for all.

Google said on LinkedIn, “The Search Console’s new AI-powered configuration is now available to everyone!”

AI-powered configuration. AI-powered configuration “lets you describe the analysis you want to see in natural language. Your inputs are then transformed into the appropriate filters and settings, instantly configuring the report for you,” Google said.

Rolling out now. If you login to your Search Console account and click on the performance report, you may see a note at the top that says “New! Customize your Performance report using Al.”

When you click on it, you get into the AI tool:

More details. As we reported earlier, Google said “The AI-powered configuration feature is designed to streamline your analysis by handling three key elements for you.”

• Selecting metrics: Choose which of the four available metrics – Clicks, Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position – to display based on your question.
• Applying filters: Narrow down data by query, page, country, device, search appearance, or date range.
• Configuring comparisons: Set up complex comparisons (like custom date ranges) without manual setup.

Why we care. This is only supported in the Performance report for Search results. It isn’t available for Discover or News reports, yet. Plus, it is AI, so the answers may not be perfect. But it can be fun to play with and get you thinking about things you may not have thought about yet.

So give it a try.