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Google Folds Top Stories Into AI Overviews, robots.txt Can't Stop It
New tracking from NewzDash shows Google is folding entire Top Stories carousels into AI Overviews on trending news queries, and the robots.txt block publishers reach for first has no effect on it.
Key takeaways
- Google now shows Top Stories carousels embedded inside AI Overviews on 15.5% of U.S. and 17.46% of UK trending news queries where Top Stories appears at all, per NewzDash CEO John Shehata.
- Blocking Google-Extended does not remove publishers from this placement, contradicting a common publisher assumption about robots.txt.
- Entertainment queries see the embedded placement most (35%+ in the U.S., 31.5% in the UK); World News hits nearly 32% in the U.S.; Health and Science barely register.
- Standalone Top Stories and the AI Overview-embedded version are mutually exclusive placements, meaning a query gets one or the other, not both.
- Marketers should stop treating robots.txt as an AI visibility lever and start auditing which placement type their content actually lands in.
What Happened
Google is now folding entire Top Stories carousels directly inside AI Overviews on nearly one in six U.S. trending news queries, and the robots.txt directive most publishers reach for first does nothing to stop it. That's the finding John Shehata, CEO of NewzDash, posted on LinkedIn in July and detailed in a full data breakdown on NewzDash's SEO for News blog, as reported by Search Engine Journal.
Among trending news queries where Google displays Top Stories at all, 15.5% in the U.S. and 17.46% in the UK now show that carousel embedded inside the AI Overview rather than as a standalone module below it. Blocking Google-Extended, the mechanism many publishers believe controls AI Overview inclusion, does not remove them from this placement.
of U.S. trending news queries (where Top Stories appears) now show it embedded inside the AI Overview
NewzDash, via Search Engine Journal, July 2026
Where It Shows Up
| Category | U.S. | UK |
|---|---|---|
| Entertainment | >35% | 31.5% |
| World News | ~32% | n/a |
| Health & Science | Barely registers | Barely registers |
Shehata's data also shows the two placements are mutually exclusive: a query surfaces Top Stories either standalone or inside the AI Overview, never both at once.
Why It Matters For Marketers
If your brand or newsroom depends on Top Stories traffic, this week's move is an audit, not a robots.txt edit. Check where your content actually lands, standalone Top Stories or the AI Overview version, since robots.txt crawl behavior doesn't govern this outcome the way most SEO playbooks assume. Pair that with a broader look at answer engine optimization tactics built for citation-based visibility rather than ranking-based visibility.
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