In brief SGE was the name Google gave in 2023 to its experimental generative search feature, retired in May 2024 when it was renamed AI Overviews.
What SGE was
SGE launched on May 10, 2023, unveiled at Google I/O as an experiment inside Search Labs, the program Google uses to test features before rolling them out to everyone. At first it was available only in the United States and in English, and trying it required signing up for a waitlist.
Anyone who turned it on saw, above the usual search results, an AI-generated block that summarized the answer with links to the sources it drew on, along with a conversational mode for asking follow-up questions without leaving the results page. SGE didn't replace traditional search; it added an optional layer users had to switch on themselves. Over the year it carried that name, Google expanded the experiment to more countries and languages and used the time to adjust how the system selected and cited its sources.
Why the name disappeared
The change wasn't a shutdown. On May 14, 2024, in its official I/O announcement, Google rolled AI-powered search out to every user in the United States and, in doing so, adopted a new brand name: AI Overviews. In that same announcement, Google refers to the earlier stage as "our experiment in Search Labs," without using the acronym SGE again.
That's the usual path from test to launch: while a feature lives in Search Labs it keeps an experiment name; once it becomes a permanent part of the product, it typically gets the name it will keep. Google never published its own explanation for the rename. Searching for "SGE" in Google Search Central's active documentation today doesn't lead to any current page about the feature, only to third-party articles documenting the period before May 2024.
What stands in its place today
What started as SGE is now AI Overview: the block with an AI-generated summary built into Google's normal results, with nothing to switch on. Almost a year later, in 2025, Google added a separate feature with a different idea, AI Mode, a distinct search tab for longer, multi-step queries. Between the two, they now cover what SGE tested experimentally back in 2023.
Manuel Riveiro Rodriguez CEO & Digital Strategist
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Does SGE still exist?
Not as a name. Google retired it on May 14, 2024, when the feature left Search Labs and was renamed AI Overviews. The technology carried on, now built into normal search; the name Search Generative Experience stopped appearing in Google's official communications after that.
Is SGE the same as AI Overview?
It's its direct continuation, not a separate feature. Google carried the same kind of AI-generated result from an optional Search Labs experiment into normal search for every user, and adopted the new name, AI Overviews, along with that step.
When did SGE start, and how long did it carry that name?
SGE started on May 10, 2023, as a Search Labs experiment. The name lasted just over a year: on May 14, 2024, Google replaced it with AI Overviews when the feature moved from testing into general search.
Why did Google change the name SGE?
Google never published its own explanation for the rename. In practice, the new name arrived together with the move from a Search Labs experiment to a permanent, fully rolled-out feature: once the testing phase ended, the name tied to that phase stopped making sense.
Sources
- Google, "How Google is improving Search with generative AI" -- verified, published 2023-05-10, original announcement of SGE (Search Generative Experience) in Search Labs
- Google, "Generative AI in Search: Let Google do the searching for you" -- verified, published 2024-05-14, announcement of the shift from SGE to AI Overviews for all US users