Google just gave publishers a new reason to check Search Console: a test button in Discover called "Dive deeper" that opens an AI-generated topic overview stacked with source links. Robby Stein, Google's VP of Product for Search, announced the experiment on X, describing it as "a new way to make exploring a topic and discovering related web content easier in Discover" (Search Engine Journal, Sept. 18, 2026). The test starts with videos.
If you run a news site, a YouTube channel, or a niche blog that leans on Discover traffic, here's the honest answer: nobody outside Google knows exactly what gets a source pulled into that overview. Google hasn't published criteria. But its own example offers real clues worth acting on, even if they don't amount to confirmed guidance.
What Google Actually Showed
Stein's post included three phone screenshots that work as a rough case study. They're the only concrete evidence available, so it's worth walking through them slowly (Search Engine Journal, Sept. 18, 2026).
Screen one shows a standard Discover card: a KCRA 3 weather video pulled from YouTube, with an AI-generated summary about a Northern California heat wave underneath, labeled "Generated with AI, which can make mistakes." The "Dive deeper" button sits below that summary.
Tapping it opens screen two: the same video, a longer summary, and a row of source cards. The first card links to kcra.com — the station's own site, not a syndicated copy or an aggregator. See related: how to audit ga4 for real vs. inferred ai traffic for additional background.
Screen three, headed "Explore more stories," groups short summaries under sub-topic headlines, each followed by source links and a brief description of the linked coverage.
What can you infer from that sequence? The featured video covered a live, timely event with original footage. The top source card pointed to the publisher's own domain rather than a reposting. And the "Explore more stories" section organized coverage by sub-topic, suggesting Google's system clusters related stories under distinct angles on the same event rather than listing everything tagged "heat wave." That's one example, not a documented ranking factor — but it's the clearest signal Google has given so far.
This is also a different mechanism from the AI previews Google rolled out broadly in Discover in October 2025 across the U.S., South Korea, and India (Search Engine Journal, Sept. 18, 2026). Those earlier previews expanded inline on trending topics. "Dive deeper" attaches to a single card — in this case, a video — and opens a separate overview behind a tap. It's a narrower, card-triggered experience, not a feed-wide layer.
What To Actually Do While This Test Is Live
Start with measurement, since that's the one thing you can verify today. Search Console's Discover generative AI performance report, which Google says rolled out to all properties worldwide on Aug. 31, tracks impressions of links shown in "generative AI features in Discover," grouped by page, country, and date (Search Engine Journal, Sept. 18, 2026). Pull that report now for any pages tied to timely video content, and log a baseline before this test spreads further.
Here's the catch: the report's help documentation doesn't list which specific features count, and it excludes anything running through Search Labs. Google hasn't said whether "Dive deeper" runs through Labs. So if your impressions rise, you can't currently isolate how much came from this button versus other AI surfaces already folded into the same report. Treat any movement as a directional signal, not proof of cause.
On the content side, a few practices line up with what the KCRA example suggests — without any guarantee they influence inclusion:
- Publish original video tied to a live or breaking event, rather than recycled or evergreen footage. The featured card in Google's example was attached to an active weather story.
- Make sure your own domain carries a clear, crawlable article or landing page for the video — not just a YouTube upload or a syndication partner's copy. The top source card in the example pointed straight to kcra.com.
- Structure follow-up coverage around distinct sub-angles of a developing story, rather than one long undifferentiated post, mirroring the "Explore more stories" grouping by sub-topic.
None of this is confirmed Google guidance. It's a reasonable read of one screenshot from one company announcement, and Stein said Google will keep testing multiple designs "in the weeks ahead" as it learns what works. The scope of the test — which countries, which languages, how many users — hasn't been disclosed. Until Google says more, or until Search Console breaks this feature out separately, treat these as things worth trying, not a checklist that guarantees a source card.
