The news: Google launched Search profiles, a customizable hub where publishers and creators can showcase their articles, videos, and social posts; add an avatar and bio; and let audiences follow them in the Discover feed, per a company blog post.

The feature is only available in the US to creators who are 18 and older and have at least 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, or X or 300,000 on TikTok.

Search profiles extend a recent run of changes Google has made to Search.

• Last month, it added in-line links and website previews inside AI Overviews and AI Mode to push more traffic to publisher sites.
• In the UK, it’s testing a Search Console toggle that lets website owners keep their content out of AI Overviews and AI Mode while staying in standard results.

Each move is aimed at keeping users clicking out to the open web instead of stopping at an AI-generated answer.

Why this matters: Google is giving publishers and creators a new visibility surface as AI Overviews erode the clicks they depend on.

• AI Overviews cut clickthrough rates (CTRs) on top-ranking results by 58% as of December 2025, per Ahrefs, well above the 34.5% decline measured in April 2025.
• Seer Interactive found that the decline in paid CTRs is stabilizing, though it doesn’t expect a return to pre-AI Overviews levels.

Google has a clear financial incentive to keep publishers producing the content its Search results depend on. Search generated $60.4 billion in Q1 2026, making up more than half (55%) of the company’s revenues. Those earnings help fund capital expenditures of up to $190 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026.

Recommendations for marketers: Search profiles give brands and the creators they work with a new discovery surface on a Google-owned platform rather than within social media. Because the profile lets creators show their work across the internet landscape, it offers a hedge against any single platform’s reach. Those who meet Google’s criteria should create their profiles early to maximize views while the platform is new.

Marketers should test follow-driven Discover reach against other social and search channels and track whether profiles offset referral-traffic losses before reallocating budget. Discover is challenging to predict as a marketing channel, so early tests should stay small until follow growth and referral data show whether it performs.

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