By Davis McCain, Research at Profound
Google is making AI Mode the default search experience, and at the same time, the google.com domain is seeing an 8.4x increase in citation share (April 15 to June 30). This solidifies google.com as the model's #2 ranked domain, just behind YouTube, driven almost entirely by its own Business Profile (google.com/searchviewer) and Product Knowledge Panel (google.com/search) subpaths.
Google is no longer just answering queries in AI Mode; it's shifting towards hosting the entire experience within its own ecosystem by routing inline citations to Google Business Profiles and Product Knowledge Panels (PKPs) interactive popup panels. For a growing share of queries, these panels become the corresponding brand’s new landing page.
Image source: TryProfound
Two categories are absorbing most of the shift.
• Hospitality and travel
• Home services
• Restaurants and dining
• Real estate
• Healthcare
Profile completeness comes first. Stale photos, missing hours, and incomplete fields are all exit points. A user who hits a half-filled panel doesn't dig for more information, they scroll to a competitor's profile in the same response.
Reviews are now front and center. Unanswered reviews or weak sentiment sit directly inside the panel instead of the curated testimonials that sit on your landing page.
The bottom line: winning the click now requires winning the card first. Brands that treat their Google Business Profile and Product Knowledge Panel presence as an afterthought are handing the decision to whoever kept theirs current.
Reviewed by Irfan Ahmad.
Read next:
• The Trust Recession: Why Consumers Are Quietly Opting Out of Believing What They See Online
• Google's AI Search Has Struggled With One Religious Question for Years
Google is making AI Mode the default search experience, and at the same time, the google.com domain is seeing an 8.4x increase in citation share (April 15 to June 30). This solidifies google.com as the model's #2 ranked domain, just behind YouTube, driven almost entirely by its own Business Profile (google.com/searchviewer) and Product Knowledge Panel (google.com/search) subpaths.
Google is no longer just answering queries in AI Mode; it's shifting towards hosting the entire experience within its own ecosystem by routing inline citations to Google Business Profiles and Product Knowledge Panels (PKPs) interactive popup panels. For a growing share of queries, these panels become the corresponding brand’s new landing page.
Two categories are absorbing most of the shift.
Local-intent verticals
An analysis of over 32 million google.com/searchviewer/ instances indicate the five most disrupted sectors include:• Hospitality and travel
• Home services
• Restaurants and dining
• Real estate
• Healthcare
Product and comparison queries
On the e-commerce side, Product Knowledge Panels (google.com/search?) are increasingly the default answer for comparison and compatibility queries, things like "best [product] for [use case]." Specs and merchant options now get served straight from Google's own panel.What this means for brands
Your homepage is no longer the first touchpoint. The Google-hosted card is. That changes what "optimization" means in practice:Profile completeness comes first. Stale photos, missing hours, and incomplete fields are all exit points. A user who hits a half-filled panel doesn't dig for more information, they scroll to a competitor's profile in the same response.
Reviews are now front and center. Unanswered reviews or weak sentiment sit directly inside the panel instead of the curated testimonials that sit on your landing page.
The bottom line: winning the click now requires winning the card first. Brands that treat their Google Business Profile and Product Knowledge Panel presence as an afterthought are handing the decision to whoever kept theirs current.
Reviewed by Irfan Ahmad.
Read next:
• The Trust Recession: Why Consumers Are Quietly Opting Out of Believing What They See Online
• Google's AI Search Has Struggled With One Religious Question for Years
