Google is testing a control that lets publishers keep their pages out of AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Google Discover while remaining in traditional search results. A Search Console document says testing began in June 2026, and the control is now rolling out to select website owners.
There are two settings. The default prevents a site’s content from appearing in Search generative AI features, though content from other sites still serves. The second prevents the content from being visible to users inside those platforms at all — Google will not link to it or use it to support AI responses. Neither control functions as a ranking or inclusion signal elsewhere in Search, and neither overrides participation in Merchant Center or Google Ads. Content may still be used to help Google’s systems understand language on the web.
The arithmetic makes this a hard choice. AI Overviews has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users and AI Mode has passed one billion, per Google’s estimates. Opting out means losing AI click data and the traffic those surfaces send. Google announced the feature in June, the same day the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority ordered the company to give publishers greater control and transparency over how their content is used in AI search.
Measurement companies are building attribution models for the gap. Partnerize’s HaloIndex, part of its VantagePoint tool, tracks editorial citations in AI search results and connects them to conversions. A score above 1.0 means clickless publisher influence exceeds what click-based measurement registers; across six categories the average is 3.84x, ranging from 1.54x in consumer audio devices to 10.94x in luxury fashion. An accompanying report identifies 1,056 citation gaps, including 47 the company flags as high-priority commercial opportunities.
“Creators are not being compensated as content becomes more important to a brand’s ability to be recommended and chosen in a short list in AI search,” said Partnerize CEO Matt Gilbert. “Visibility alone does not drive recommendations, and recommendations only give a publisher’s content the chance to convert.”
Read more at MediaPost.