TL;DR
Google has “nothing to announce yet” on adding more AI search data to Search Console, Google’s Gary Illyes wrote on LinkedIn on 2 November, according to Search Engine Journal. The comment matters in the UK because the Competition and Markets Authority requires Google to give publishers AI search metrics, including clicks, by 3 December. That date is about a month away.
Illyes was replying to a post that credited unnamed Google staff with a remark about clicks and queries data. “I don’t think we’ve phrased it like this,” he wrote. “The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don’t have anything to announce yet.” That is not a statement about UK compliance, and Search Engine Journal does not present it as one.
The gap between the report and the rule
Search Console currently counts impressions for AI Overviews and AI Mode combined, so publishers can see how often their pages appear. Clicks from those features sit inside the standard Performance report, mixed with other web results, so they cannot be separated.
The conduct requirement we covered in June asks for more. The CMA’s own summary lists “impressions, clicks, and click-through rate, aggregated across features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode”, together with referral data for judging traffic quality.
Search Engine Journal says the CMA’s interpretive notes go further, asking for a per-publisher breakdown that distinguishes AI features from organic results, through a platform such as Search Console. Google may satisfy the regulator by another route, so an absence from Search Console would not by itself be a breach.
Other dates in the calendar
The summary gives Google an extra three months after 3 December for a page-level control. Search Engine Journal adds that the first compliance report covers 3 June to 3 December and falls due on 3 January 2027, and that the CMA expects to require a published version of each report. The CMA also says it expects changes sooner than the deadline, and that some of the control and transparency work is already rolling out.
Looking Forward
This is a small comment with a firm date behind it. UK publishers cannot currently isolate clicks from AI features, so any decision about those features rests on partial data. In our view, the December data will be the first real test of what the requirement delivers. Publishers should check their Search Console reports after 3 December, and tell the CMA if the numbers do not appear: its summary invites comments on their experience of Google’s changes.