Google tests disabling the sources link in Discover's AI cards: Reveneau

Why it mattersOne of the few paths from a Discover AI card back to a publisher may be closing. Teams relying on Discover for traffic should track whether the test rolls out.

Google is testing a change in Discover. The test stops a reader clicking through to the sources behind an AI summary card. Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz wrote it up on 26 October, from a sighting by Damien Andell on X. Google has not confirmed the test. Barry Schwartz says he could not reproduce it himself.

What is on the Discover card now

Google Discover is the feed shown on the home screen of the Google app on Android and iOS. Some cards in that feed are AI summaries. At the bottom of the AI summary card there is a Sources link. Tapping it opens a small list of the articles the summary drew from.

The reader can tap one of those articles and visit the publisher. That is one of the few paths out of an AI card back to a site. Discover is already a surface where a reader is least likely to leave for a publisher. The point of the feed is to keep them inside Google.

What the test does

The test disables the Sources link. Damien Andell shared screenshots of a card where the link no longer opens anything. The flag Google runs the test under is called disable_aio_sources_button_tap. The name says the rest.

Barry Schwartz questioned the change in the post. His quote: "This has to be a bug, right? I mean, really? Google is taking away more clicks from publishers?"

What is not known

Three things the article does not have. There is no statement from Google. There is no number for how many users see it. There is no sign of whether the test will reverse, is a bug, or will roll out to everyone.

Barry Schwartz tried to see the flag on his own device and could not. So the only direct evidence in the piece is Damien Andell's screenshot and the flag name.

What a publishing team should do about it today

A reader cannot act on the test itself, because Google decides. The piece still gives a team two useful things.

The first is a measurement to start now. In analytics, filter Discover-driven sessions by the referrer and separate the ones that arrived through an AI card. Count how many of those visited the Sources list before clicking a result. That share is the traffic the Sources link is responsible for today. If the test rolls out, the number falls.

The second is a reminder about where Discover sits in a traffic plan. The feed is a surface a publisher does not control. The sources link was one of the few quiet ways content paid off there. Teams that lean on Discover for a real share of visits should treat today's share as the ceiling. Plan without the link.

Source

Reporting by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, Google Discover Tests Disabling Clicks In Sources Section.

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