Google could allow publishers to block their content from AI Overviews

Google says it is exploring new options to allow websites to opt out of having their content used in its search engine's AI features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. This announcement follows requirements imposed by the UK competition authority, which wants to give publishers more control over how the American giant uses their content.

The CMA's new requirements

The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published on January 27, 2026 a set of binding measures for Google Search. The authority designated Google with a "Strategic Market Status" in October 2025, which allows it to impose targeted rules on how the search engine operates. These measures aim to correct an imbalance identified by the regulator: currently, the " publishers do not have sufficient choices " regarding the use of their content in responses generated by Google's AI.

According to the CMA, publishers "" because of Google's dominant position in the search market. This situation limits their ability to monetize their content, while Google accesses that information to generate AI responses in a way its competitors cannot match. have no realistic option other than to allow their content to be crawled have no realistic option other than to allow their content to be crawled

Four priority areas for intervention

The CMA's proposals are built around four main pillars.

• The first concerns controls for publishers Sites will be able to refuse that their content feed AI Overviews or be used to train AI models outside Google Search, with Google obliged to provide appropriate attribution in AI-generated results.
• The second focus is on ranking fairness Google will need to demonstrate to the CMA and users that its approach to ranking search results is fair and transparent, including in AI Overviews and AI Mode, with an effective process to report and investigate any issues.
• The other two measures relate to choice screensThese will make it easier to change the default search engine on Android and Chrome, as well as to port Google search data.

Google's response

Google published an official response on January 27, 2026, confirming it is exploring updates to its controls to allow sites to specifically exclude their content from generative search features. The Mountain View giant will rely on the existing mechanisms used for Featured snippets and Google Extended, although this currently does not affect search AI features.

Google specified that its objective is to "protect the usefulness of search for people who want information quickly, while giving websites the right tools to manage their content ». The company emphasizes the need for these new controls to avoid fragmenting the search experience and to remain simple and scalable for site owners.

The limits of current controls

Currently, Google offers Google-Extended, a mechanism in the robots.txt file that allows blocking the use of content for training future Gemini models. However, this directive does not block the use of content in AI Overviews, considered an integral part of the main search experience.

To exclude content from AI Overviews today, publishers must use the meta tag “nosnippet” or the max-snippet:0 parameter, but this approach also blocks the content from standard search results. This limitation puts publishers in a dilemma: either accept that their content feeds AI Overviews or lose their visibility in traditional search results.

Issues for content publishers

The CMA identified that publishers have a " limited transparency " about how Google uses their content in AI‑generated responses and about user engagement with that content. This opacity complicates making informed decisions, particularly regarding whether to allow Google to use their content and for what purposes.

The UK authority also emphasizes the importance of an attribution " prominent and precise " of sources, which can have " a significant impact on results for publishers, notably click-through rates ". Although Google has taken concrete steps to improve attribution, the current inability for publishers to remove their content limits Google’s incentives to ensure sufficiently accurate and visible attribution.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, said these targeted and proportionate measures would provide more choice and control for UK businesses and consumers over their interaction with Google's search services while unlocking greater opportunities for innovation in the UK tech sector and the wider economy The authority nevertheless acknowledges that its proposals will not solve all the problems that publishers currently face but represent an important precondition to address broader concerns about their ability to negotiate fair terms with Google.

The article "Google could allow publishers to block their content from AI Overviews" was published on the site Abondance.