Google brings link carousels to AI Mode for developing topics

Google confirmed that link carousels, those horizontal cards featuring web pages about the same topic, now also appear within AI Mode responses. The feature already existed in AI Overviews since June and, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable, was extended to queries made in the search engine's conversational mode.

The confirmation came from Robby Stein, of Google, who wrote on X: "Now live in AI Mode (already in AI Overviews): link carousels for developing topics". He reinforced the official line that the goal of AI-powered search is to "make it easier to connect with original coverage and a variety of perspectives".

What developing-topic carousels are

These carousels appear in queries linked to topics that are in motion: breaking news, ongoing events, subjects that change quickly throughout the day. Instead of the AI synthesizing everything into a single block of text, Google intersperses clickable cards pointing to specific pages, often from news outlets and sources of original coverage.

The logic is similar to the Top Stories box that already exists in traditional search, but now embedded in the flow of an AI-generated response. For volatile topics, the model tends to make more mistakes and become outdated, so showing direct links works as a safety valve both for the user and for the editor who produced the content.

Why this matters for people who work with search

AI Mode is the format where Google has cut the most outbound clicks: the answer arrives pre-digested and the user rarely needs to visit the source page. Any new surface that brings back visible, clickable links is, in practice, an extra chance at traffic that didn't exist before in this format.

In practice, this means that content about fast-moving topics now has a discovery path within AI Mode that evergreen content doesn't have. A well-structured news article, published quickly and with clear signals of timeliness, can earn a card in the carousel. A timeless guide, on the other hand, remains subject to being absorbed into the AI summary without a featured link.

It's worth measuring the impact carefully. In Search Console, the search type filter still doesn't separate AI Mode at a granular level, but it's possible to track impressions and clicks on news content URLs and compare behavior before and after the expansion. The recommendation is to look at CTR per page for queries with recent informational intent, not just aggregate volume.

Publishers' complaints continue

The expansion doesn't please everyone. The same Search Engine Roundtable report includes criticism from Adam, of the site Inspired Taste, who pointed to a concrete case: in the query "baked apples recipe inspired taste," the site's own link appeared pushed down by an AI Overview that displayed a full recipe "confidently claiming to be ours." The complaint was publicly directed at Google executives, with a request that the practice stop.

It's a portrait of the current dilemma: even when the user explicitly searches for a brand ("inspired taste" in the middle of the query), the AI can reproduce that brand's content and still occupy the space above the original link. Carousels help restore visibility, but they don't solve the underlying problem, which is the AI competing with the source using the source itself as raw material.

Barry Schwartz, author of the piece, acknowledges the tension but describes the novelty as progress: "I think this is an improvement and would like to see more of this." The takeaway is that having link cards is better than having none at all, even though it falls far short of restoring the traffic that the previous search format generated.

What to do with content in Portuguese

For those publishing in Brazil, a few concrete fronts deserve attention:

• News structured data: marking articles with NewsArticle (and not just Article) signals timeliness and helps Google understand that the content belongs to a developing topic. Correct datePublished and dateModified matter more than ever.
• Publishing speed: developing topics reward those who arrive early and update. An article published hours after the peak of interest is unlikely to make it into the carousel.
• Original coverage and a distinct angle: since the AI already summarizes the consensus, what stands out is the perspective the model can't generate on its own, local data, original reporting, Brazilian context. This is also the essence of GEO (generative engine optimization): being citable, not just indexable.
• Entity authority: sites recognized as a source for a topic have a better chance of appearing in the cards. Topic consistency and E-E-A-T signals remain the foundation.

What remains open

Google hasn't detailed the criteria that determine when a carousel appears or how many links it displays per topic. There's also no public data on the CTR of these cards within AI Mode compared to traditional search, which makes it hard to calculate real returns for now. And the central question publishers raise remains: is the carousel a genuine rebalancing gesture or a palliative measure in the face of a format that, on average, still reduces outbound traffic?

For now, the practical guidance is to treat the novelty as a new discovery surface to be monitored, not as a trend reversal. Those who produce content about fast-moving topics have an extra incentive to invest in structure, speed, and a distinct angle, and to closely measure what this change does to real traffic over the coming weeks.