At the recent Search Central Live Deep Dive 2025, Kenichi Suzuki asked Google’s Gary Illyes how Google measures high quality and user satisfaction of traffic from AI Overviews. Illyes’ response, published by Suzuki on LinkedIn, covered multiple points.
Kenichi asked for specific data, and Gary’s answer offered an overview of how Google gathers external data to form internal opinions on how AI Overviews is perceived by users in terms of satisfaction. He said that the data informs public statements by Google, including those made by CEO Sundar Pichai.
Illyes began his answer by saying that he couldn’t share specifics about the user satisfaction data, but he still continued to offer his overview.
User Satisfaction Surveys
The first data point that Illyes mentioned was user satisfaction surveys to understand how people feel about AI Overviews. Kenichi wrote that Illyes said:
“The public statements made by company leaders, such as Sundar Pichai, are validated by this internal data before being made public.”
Observed User Behavior
The second user satisfaction data point that Illyes mentioned was inferring from the broader market. Kenichi wrote:
“Gary suggested that one can infer user preference by looking at the broader market. He pointed out that the rapidly growing user base for other AI tools (like ChatGPT and Copilot) likely consists of the same demographic that enjoys and finds value in AI Overviews.”
Motivated By User-Focus
This part means putting the user first as the motivation for introducing a new feature. Illyes specifically said that causing a disruption is not Google’s motivation for AI search features.
Acknowledged The Web Ecosystem
The last point he made was to explain that Google’s still figuring out how to balance their user-focused approach with the need to maintain a healthy web ecosystem.
Kenichi wrote that Illyes said:
“He finished by acknowledging that they are still figuring out how to balance this user-focused approach with the need to continue supporting the wider web ecosystem.”
Balancing The Needs Of The Web Ecosystem
At the dawn of modern SEO, Google did something extraordinary: they reached out to web publishers through the most popular SEO forum at the time, WebmasterWorld. Gary Illyes himself, before he joined Google, was a WebmasterWorld member. This outreach by Google was the initiative of one Googler, Matt Cutts. Other Googlers provided interviews, but Matt Cutts, under the WebmasterWorld nickname of GoogleGuy, held two-way conversations with the search and publisher community.
This is no longer the case at Google, which is largely back to one-way communication accompanied by intermittent social media outreach.
The SEO community may share in the blame for this situation, as some SEOs post abusive responses on social media. Fortunately, those people are in the minority, but that behavior nonetheless puts a chill on the few opportunities provided to have a constructive dialogue.
It’s encouraging to hear Illyes mention the web ecosystem, and it would be even further encouraging to hear Googlers, including the CEO, focus more on how they intend to balance the needs of the users with those of the creators who publish content, because many feel that Google’s current direction is not sustainable for publishers.
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