Alvaro Peña de Luna 
Search Generative Experience (SGE) was Google’s experiment, launched in Search Labs in May 2023, that placed an AI-generated summary with source links at the top of search results; in May 2024 Google rolled the feature out to all users in the US under a new name, AI Overviews.
SGE is the starting point of Google’s AI search. The name is no longer used by Google, but you will still find it in articles, tools and conversations, usually meaning what is now called AI Overviews.
What SGE was
SGE was opt-in: users had to join Search Labs, Google’s program for testing new search features, to see it. For some queries, it generated a short summary above the classic results, drawing on web pages and showing links to them so users could dig deeper. It also let users ask follow-up questions in a conversational mode, carrying the context of the first search forward.
Because it was an experiment, its look and behavior changed often while it was in testing. That is worth remembering when you read older analyses of it.
From SGE to AI Overviews and AI Mode
- May 2023: Google announces SGE and opens it as an opt-in experiment in Search Labs.
- May 2024: Google launches AI Overviews for everyone in the US, bringing the SGE summary into standard search results.
- 2025: Google adds AI Mode, a separate, fully conversational search experience, which picks up the follow-up idea SGE had tested.
Google documents how these features work, and how site owners can control their participation, in its guide to AI features and your website.
SGE vs AI Overviews vs AI Mode
| SGE | AI Overviews | AI Mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Former experiment | Part of standard search | Separate search mode |
| Access | Opt-in through Search Labs | Automatic, for some queries | Chosen by the user |
| Format | Summary above results, with follow-ups | Summary above the organic results | A conversation, replacing the list of results |
Why SGE still matters
SGE was the moment Google signaled that answers, not only links, would sit at the top of its results. Much of today’s advice on answer engine optimization and zero-click search began as a response to it. When you meet the term today, read it as “Google’s AI summaries”, then check whether the claim was made about the 2023 experiment or about the current AI Overviews.
How to measure what replaced SGE
AI Overviews appear only for some searches, so measure two things: how often one appears for your queries, and how often you are named when it does.
AI Overview rate = searches that showed an AI Overview ÷ searches checked × 100
Coverage = AI Overviews that name your brand ÷ AI Overviews shown × 100
For example, if you check 200 queries and 80 show an AI Overview, the rate is 40%. If your brand is named in 20 of those 80 overviews, your coverage is 25%. Keeping the two apart stops a query set with few overviews from making your brand look weaker than it is. You can check a single query with the free AI Overview checker.
Common mistakes
- Using 2023 SGE findings as current fact. The feature has changed since it left Labs.
- Assuming the organic ranking decides the summary. AI Overviews can cite pages that are not at the top of the organic results.
- Counting searches with no AI Overview as losses. If no summary appears, there is nothing to be named in.
How Mencoro tracks AI Overviews today
Mencoro does not track SGE, which no longer exists, but it tracks what replaced it: Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode, alongside ChatGPT, Perplexity and the classic Google SERP. When Google shows no AI Overview for a search, the check returns no answer and is left out of Coverage, exactly as in the formula above. When one appears, Mencoro records its text and sources, the brands it names and your link position among its sources. See the Google AI Overview tracker and the methodology page for details.
Related glossary terms
- Google AI Overviews: the feature SGE became, AI summaries above the organic results.
- Google AI Mode: Google’s conversational AI search mode.
- AI search engine: a search engine that writes answers from the pages it retrieves.
- Zero-click search: searches answered on the results page without a visit to any site.
