Google AI Overviews arrive in France: why they could disrupt the entire internet

Your way of searching on Google is about to change: AI is arriving in France to answer your questions instead of websites. Find out why this feature could disrupt the entire internet.

If you use Google every day, expect a striking visual change over the coming days. Following months of waiting, Google is rolling out one of the biggest changes to its search engine in France: AI Overviews.

From now on, when you ask a question, Gemini artificial intelligence will write a complete summary directly at the top of your screen to answer it. Although useful for users in a hurry, this technology is shaking up the economics of the entire web and is already causing serious concern among publishers.

France was left behind

While the feature launched in the United States in spring 2024 before being introduced in more than 100 countries, including across Europe, France was excluded for a long time. A particularly strict legal framework was the reason.

European rules on personal data protection, through the GDPR and the AI Act, initially delayed approval of the tool. Before that, Google had been locked in a dispute with French media outlets and the Competition Authority over the use of press articles by AI to generate answers without properly compensating publishers.

After months of negotiations and legal adjustments, the US giant has finally received approval to open the floodgates in France.

Why website publishers are panicking about Google AI Overviews

In practical terms, rather than presenting a straightforward list of blue links, Google's AI reads several websites, compares the information and displays a direct, concise answer at the very top of the page.

It is a genuine earthquake for media outlets and blogs, whose click-through rates to their sites will fall sharply. Naturally, the whole economic model of the free web is now under threat. Most websites rely on traffic and advertising, and if Google provides the answer directly, users no longer need to click through to get information.

In response to this risk, online professionals already need to change how they create content if they hope to be cited by AI. This marks the emergence of a new optimisation method called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

This is only the beginning

AI Overviews are merely a first step. Google has no intention of stopping there and is already testing what comes next: “AI Mode”. Tomorrow, the traditional search page will disappear entirely, making way for a 100% conversational interface, similar to a standard chatbot.

Google has also already planned how to make this highly expensive technology profitable: by placing advertising directly within AI responses. Sponsored links and products will no longer simply appear alongside them, but will instead be recommended directly by the chatbot.