[UPDATE] Google adds more prominent links to AI Mode and AI Overviews but still withholds click data
Google announced more inline links placed higher in AI responses, a test of an official-source section at the top, wider news carousels featuring Preferred Sources, and a more clickable design for 'Dive Deeper' links. It said Preferred Sources usage has grown more than sevenfold this year. Search Engine Roundtable noted that Google still does not report clicks from AI features, saying only it will 'introduce additional metrics over time', and that over 400 publications are in its paid News AI pilot. For answer-engine economics, how much referral traffic AI answers send to publishers remains unmeasured in public data; watch for click metrics in Search Console.