AI Overviews embed Top Stories: what this means for publishers and brands
Google has started embedding Top Stories blocks directly into AI Overviews on 15.5% of trending news queries in the US. This integration is a game-changer for publishers and brands that rely on organic search traffic. At the same time, blocking Google-Extended does not remove publishers from these blocks. John Shehata, CEO of NewzDash, discovered this in July, and many publishers threatening to block Google’s AI do not realize this is already happening.
Shehata published data on LinkedIn showing that nearly one in six trending news queries in the US now displays Top Stories inside AI Overviews. The full data analysis is available on the NewzDash SEO for News blog. This trend is not new in essence, but it is new in mechanism: in 2006, John and I discussed on the panel «Vertical Creep Into Regular Search Results» at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York how Google quietly integrated Google News into main search results. Danny Sullivan called this launch in May 2007 the most radical change in Google’s history, combining video, images, books, and news into a single ranked list.
Nineteen years later, Google is repeating this, but now instead of a mixed results page — an AI-generated answer. According to NewzDash, among trending news queries where Top Stories are displayed at all, 15.5% in the US and 17.46% in the UK show the carousel inside the AI Overview, rather than as a separate module below. Entertainment queries lead: over 35% in the US and 31.5% in the UK. World news reaches nearly 32% in the US. Health and science queries are almost unaffected.
Shehata’s data also shows that the two placements are mutually exclusive: if Top Stories are inside the AI Overview, a separate carousel below for the same query is not shown. This distinction matters because it changes the entire conversation about opting out that publishers have been having since the launch of AI Overviews. Most publishers wishing to opt out specify Google-Extended in robots.txt and consider the matter resolved. But that is not the case. Google’s own documentation states that Google-Extended controls the use of AI for training and grounding, for example, for future Gemini models, and explicitly does not affect a site’s inclusion in Google Search or is not a ranking signal. Blocking does not remove a publisher from AI Overviews, AI Mode, standard Top Stories, or Top Stories embedded in AI Overview.
What NewzDash shows
Shehata is right to keep insisting on this, because the confusion is not a marginal misunderstanding but a standard assumption across the industry. Google began testing generative AI exclusion in Search Console in June, currently limited to a subset of site owners in the UK. This allows an eligible publisher to exclude their links and content from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative Discover features without affecting their eligibility for traditional search. Google’s documentation says that excluded content will not appear in these features and will not even be used as input for generating a response.
Choosing this parameter, according to Shehata, will almost certainly cost you your spot in the embedded Top Stories carousel, since it is simply a collection of publisher links within one of the covered surfaces. Google has not confirmed what will happen at the layout level: whether AI Overview will continue to show the embedded carousel from the remaining publishers, or whether Google will revert to a separate Top Stories module. No one outside Mountain View knows, and Shehata cautiously calls this a high-confidence interpretation rather than a documented outcome.
Google-Extended is not an AI Overviews opt-out
This restraint is rare in AI SEO commentary, and that is why I trust his data more than loud claims. The bigger story here is not the mechanics of Google-Extended versus Search Console controls, although publishers really do need to understand that difference before touching settings. The main story is that the central problem with AI Overviews has always been trust, not visibility. Users have no reliable way to know whether an AI answer is based on real reporting from authoritative newsrooms or on something more subtle.
Embedding Top Stories with named publishers, real authors, and direct links into the body of the AI Overview instead of placing them below a wall of generated text is a real, albeit incomplete, response to that problem. I have watched Google shuffle the placement of news in results since the days of «vertical penetration» in 2006. This is the first step in the AI Overviews era aimed at rebuilding trust, not just reducing clicks to the open web. However, it is a step in the right direction but not a finished solution, and Google’s refusal to document what happens to publishers who opt out is precisely the ambiguity that undermines the trust this move is supposed to build.
Control that reaches AI Overviews is quite different
For SEO professionals managing news clients or newsroom sites, three things are worth doing this week rather than waiting for Google to clarify the layout question. First, separate your controls before touching any of them. Check whether your site blocks Google-Extended, uses the new generative AI exclusion in Search Console, or neither, and document which surfaces each one actually controls. Treating them as interchangeable is a way to accidentally lose visibility in AI Overviews while thinking you only opted out of training data.
Three actions for this week
Second, if you have access to the exclusion in Search Console, test it on a URL prefix property or a separate section before applying it sitewide. Google’s control supports inheritance between parent and child properties, allowing a news publisher to try the exclusion, for example, on a separate vertical and see what happens to Top Stories eligibility in that section before deciding whether the trade-off is worth it for the entire domain.
Third, start exporting generative AI performance reports from Search Console now and combine them with a tool like NewzDash, which tracks how often your URLs appear in Top Stories carousels compared to inline placements in AI Overviews. You cannot make an informed decision about opting out without a baseline of how much visibility is at stake, and that baseline must exist before you flip the setting, not after.
Twenty years ago, «vertical penetration» meant publishers needed to figure out how a blended results page would treat their headlines. Today, it means figuring out how a generated answer treats them. The mechanism has changed, but the need for publishers to understand what they are getting into and what they are giving up has not. John Shehata is doing the unglamorous work of documenting this shift in real time, and until Google says otherwise, his data is the closest thing to ground truth the industry has.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Google-Extended affect Top Stories in AI Overviews?
Blocking Google-Extended does not remove your site from AI Overviews, including inline Top Stories. This setting only controls the use of content for AI training and grounding, not search visibility.
What is the generative AI exclusion in Search Console?
This is a new control that allows publishers to exclude their links from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative Discover features without affecting traditional search. It has been tested since June and is available to a limited number of site owners in the UK.
Can I test the exclusion before applying it to the entire site?
Yes, the control supports inheritance between properties, so you can apply it to a specific section and observe the impact on Top Stories visibility before deciding whether to apply it to the entire domain.
What should I do if I don’t want to opt out of AI Overviews?
You don’t need to do anything. If you don’t change the settings, your site will continue to appear in AI Overviews and Top Stories. But it’s important to understand what data you are sharing and how it affects traffic.
For publishers and brands working with video production, this trend underscores the importance of adapting content to new formats. If you want to remain visible in AI Overviews, focus on creating high-quality, structured content that is easy for AI to interpret. And if you need help producing video that will work effectively in these formats, reach out to us—we offer a full-cycle video production service, from idea to publication, saving your budget and nerves.
