What Google is testing
On September 18, 2026, Google confirmed a new experiment inside the Discover feed. A pill-shaped “Dive deeper” button sits on selected cards and opens a short, machine-written topic overview with links to related stories, community reactions and original reporting. Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search, said the test will start with video content and that multiple designs will roll out over the following weeks.
Stein described the destination as showing “prominent links” to related stories, community reactions and original reporting. But the official announcement was thin: no country list, no share of users, no details on how sources are chosen, and no mention of publisher opt-outs.
The code tells a bigger story
Hours after Stein’s post, Damien Andell, co-founder of Discover analytics service 1492.vision, published a LinkedIn post saying he had activated the button in a YouTube summary card. For now, he reported, the button did nothing when tapped. More importantly, he listed configuration flags covering four entry points: expand and inline placements for both video and article cards.
That matters because Google’s public statement limits the test to video. The flags suggest the article path is already built, even if it has not been switched on. The “aio” in the flag names points to the existing AI summary layer on Discover cards, not necessarily AI Overviews in Search.
Why publisher teams are worried
Nicola Agius, SEO and Discover director at Reach plc, called the design another attack on publisher traffic. On a normal Discover card, tapping the image goes to the publisher. The new button adds a second tap target that keeps the user inside Google, one step deeper into a generated overview.
Agius also highlighted the presentation problem. In Google’s mockup, the outbound links have truncated headlines and small thumbnails, and each link is framed by a Google-written description of the story. Publishers control their own headlines and images on a standard Discover card. In the overview screen, they control neither.
The traffic backdrop
The reaction makes sense given Discover’s scale. Research from August 2025 found Discover accounted for two-thirds of Google referrals to 2,000 global news and media websites, overtaking traditional search. But the trend has been difficult: Chartbeat figures cited in May 2026 showed Discover page views fell 15% between December 2024 and December 2025. Reach plc reported Google referral volumes down 55% year on year in July 2026.
Dive deeper adds a second generated layer on top of existing AI summaries. A user can see a Google summary on the card, tap into a longer Google overview, and only then meet publisher links near the bottom of a second screen.
What to do now
This is still a test, but the direction is clear. Here is a practical monitoring checklist for SEO and content teams:
- Audit which pages currently earn Discover traffic and whether they appear inside AI summaries.
- Separate impressions from clicks in your reporting; Google’s generative AI performance data currently shows impressions without click data.
- Review your first-line summaries and angles, because generated overviews may reframe what users see before they click.
- Watch for article entry points, not just video cards, and check whether the button appears in your market.
The test is early, the sample is unknown, and the button may change as Google iterates. But the underlying shift is consistent with a feed that already surfaces AI summaries and YouTube video ahead of publisher pages. Teams that treat Discover as a distribution channel, not owned traffic, should stress-test their discovery assumptions now.
Source: PPC Land
