Google is testing a change to how users expand AI Overviews in search results, replacing the familiar "Show more" button with a loading indicator, according to a test spotted and reported by Search Engine Roundtable.

The experiment touches one of the most heavily used surfaces in Google Search. AI Overviews now appear across a large share of queries, and the "Show more" control has been the standard way users expand a truncated AI-generated answer to see the full response and its source links.

What changed in the test

In the variant observed by Search Engine Roundtable, the button that previously invited users to click for additional AI Overview content no longer appears in its usual form. Instead, users see a loading state in its place.

This is a user interface test, not a confirmed product change. Google runs interface experiments on search results continuously, and most of them never reach full rollout. The company routinely tests variations of SERP elements — labels, buttons, layouts and formatting — with small percentages of users before deciding whether to ship anything broadly.

Google has not issued an official statement confirming the test, describing its scope, or explaining its purpose. Everything known about the change so far comes from the Search Engine Roundtable sighting, which is tool-signal and user-report territory rather than an announced product update.

Why the detail matters

The "Show more" control is not cosmetic. It sits between the short version of an AI answer and the expanded version that typically carries more of the citations driving referral traffic. Any change to how users reach that expanded state can affect:

• Click behavior. If a loading indicator replaces an explicit button, the interaction pattern for expanding AI Overviews changes, which can shift how often users see full answers and source links.
• Publisher visibility. Sites that rely on AI Overview citations have a direct stake in whether users expand the answers that reference them.
• Measurement. SEO tools tracking AI Overview presence and SERP features will need to account for the new presentation if the test expands.

For publishers and SEO teams monitoring AI Overview traffic, interface experiments like this one are worth logging even before rollout, because they signal which parts of the AI answer surface Google is actively reworking.

Confirmed versus speculative

To keep the record straight: the confirmed fact here is the sighting itself — Search Engine Roundtable documented the interface variant on live search results. Everything beyond that, including whether the loading indicator improves completion rates for AI answers or replaces the button permanently, remains speculation until Google comments or the test widens.

Google's standard practice offers some framing. The company has said repeatedly that it tests thousands of search variations and that live traffic experiments are how it decides what users actually prefer. A loading state in place of a button could suggest Google is exploring smoother, automatic expansion of AI Overviews, or simply measuring whether the current button creates friction. The source does not say which, so neither should we.

What to watch next

Monitor whether the loading variant appears more widely in the coming weeks, whether Google's Search Status Dashboard or liaison accounts acknowledge it, and whether AI Overview referral patterns in analytics shift alongside any broader rollout.