Google.com has become the second most cited domain in Google’s AI mode, according to a new report from Profound, an AI visibility platform that sells tools to track brand presence in AI searches.
The report shows google.com citation shares increased 8.4x between April 15 and June 30, with almost all of that increase going to two Google-owned sites, business profile cards and product information panels.
What the Data Shows
Citation share shows how often a domain appears as a citation in answers generated by AI Mode. The data shows that google.com moved to second place from April to June, mainly due to two sub-channels: one that delivers Business Profiles and the other that offers Product Information Panels. The increase in google.com citations is particularly noticeable for two types of queries: local searches and product searches.
In local searches, citations appear on the Business Profile card, and the analysis found five sectors that have experienced the greatest change: hospitality and tourism, home services, restaurants and catering, real estate, and health care. In searching for a product, the Product Information Panel performs the same function. Questions comparing products, checking compatibility, or seeking clarification often show a panel instead of a link to the seller’s or product’s website.
Pattern SEJ Trace
Google’s AI answers have been quoting its pages for over a year. In March, SE Ranking data, reported by SEJ, showed that Google made 17% of the 1.3 million citations in AI Mode, rising to almost 20% when including YouTube. Profound uses the same quote share metric, but analyzes different datasets and time periods. Both found that Google features often appear in AI Mode quotes.
In May 2025, SEJ reported that 43% of AI responses refer to Google results, the previous method of self-citation. These are recorded as google.com citations at the domain level, even if the card displays information about other businesses or products. The data shows that the growth is mostly happening in these two types of cards, instead of links to Google’s organic results pages.
Product Panels and Google Exit Programs
Profound sees the rise in Product Information Panel citations as an early indicator of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, but stops short of confirming that the panels in its dataset are UCP-enabled. Google defines UCP as an open standard that allows direct purchases across AI and Gemini Mode, with vendors acting as the Vendor of Record. The connection between the panels in the data and the UCP purchase process of Google is the interpretation of Profound, not an official guarantee from Google.
Why This Matters
The share quote shows where AI Mode is connecting, not where the traffic is going. An increase in Google.com citations does not mean that visits to your site have been replaced. It indicates that for location or product queries, AI Mode may cite a Google-hosted card with your hours, photos, reviews, or product information instead of your page.
Looking Forward
Most of what AI mode cites for location queries and products are Google properties, not independent websites. That stifles publishers and brands in the same way that the whole self-citation pattern does, with the citation staying on Google itself instead of an external site. But these cards are protections built around data you control, like your business profile through local results and shopping product feeds.
This makes the preparation of these questions more manageable than general efforts, as you influence the data input directly. However, it only protects the presence of the indexed card, which shows the quotes, not the clicks or subsequent sales.
Featured Image: Dean Drobot/Shutterstock
