Google adds an opt-out option to let website owners exclude their sites from AI results

Google has announced that it will add a new opt out control in Search Console, allowing website owners to exclude their domains from the company’s generative AI search results. The control applies specifically to AI Overviews and AI Mode, two of the major generative features in Google Search, letting participating sites decide whether their content can appear in or help shape AI generated responses. The feature will first be tested with a select group of domain owners in the United Kingdom, following pressure from the UK Competition and Markets Authority. The regulator pushed for the measure due to Google’s strategic status in the search market, with the goal of giving publishers, including news organizations, more leverage in negotiations over content use. Google plans to expand the control globally after the UK pilot. Sites that opt out will lose impressions and traffic from AI generated results, but Google says their standard Search rankings and visibility outside these AI features ...