Those short, odd queries turning up in Google Search Console, strings like "yes", "yes go on" and "yes, pricing", are AI Mode follow-up questions rather than a tracking fault. Search Engine Roundtable reported on 6 August 2026 that John Mueller of Google addressed the examples directly, saying that "Search Console includes information on AI Overviews and AI Mode in the general performance report", and pointing to Google's own documentation.
What practitioners spotted
Anastasia Kourou posted examples on LinkedIn of conversational fragments sitting inside her query data, including "yes", "yes go on" and "yes, pricing". Ross Tavendale posted a similar observation on X on 4 August 2026, and the write-up at Search Engine Roundtable collected both. Sitting next to ordinary keywords, these strings look like junk, which is why the first reaction was that Search Console had broken something.
Google's answer: a follow-up is a new query
Mueller's reply pointed at Google documentation which states that if a user asks a follow-up question within AI Mode they are essentially performing a new query, and that all impression, position and click data in the new response are counted as coming from that new user query. Someone typing "yes go on" to keep an AI Mode conversation moving is, as far as the performance report is concerned, running a search.
It is worth being blunt about what this is not. Google did not announce a feature, ship a new report or change how anything is measured. Mueller restated behaviour that Google has already documented, and this data has been arriving in the performance report the whole time. What changed on 4 and 6 August 2026 is that people started noticing the short fragments. Any AI search visibility work depends on reading this data for what it is.
Where AI Mode data sits in Search Console
The two report families are not interchangeable, and only one of them carries query strings at all. This is what the Search Engine Roundtable report of 6 August 2026 and the Google documentation Mueller cited describe.
| Report | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Main search performance report | Includes information on AI Overviews and AI Mode, with query-level data |
| Generative AI performance reports | No query-level data at all |
| A follow-up question asked inside AI Mode | Treated as a new query, with the impression, position and click data of that response attributed to it |
What this does to your reported numbers
Every conversation turn carries impressions and a position, so it lands in the same averages as your commercial keywords. A stack of one-word affirmatives that nobody clicks pulls average position and average CTR in directions that have nothing to do with the classic results page. Filter the conversational fragments out before reporting and what remains is a truer read on ordinary search performance.
The old detection trick now has a hole in it. Search Engine Roundtable notes that the SEO community has spent years inferring AI-driven queries by hunting for unusually long, conversational strings in the performance report. The "yes" examples are the same phenomenon at one or two words. A filter built on query length will sail straight past them, which is a good argument for reading query data by hand during an SEO audit rather than trusting a length threshold, and for keeping analytics reporting honest about what the word "query" now covers.
What this means for Thai marketers
Thai-language follow-ups will be harder to catch than the English ones. Thai is written without spaces between words, so character length in a query says little about how many words a person actually typed, and short affirmatives are ordinary and unremarkable in Thai. A filter tuned to catch "yes" in English has no obvious Thai counterpart to look for. Anyone auditing a Thai property should expect the same contamination in their query data and inspect it manually, instead of assuming that a tidy-looking report means no AI Mode traffic.
Frequently asked questions
Is a query like "yes" in Search Console a bug?
No, it is an AI Mode follow-up question. Mueller stated that Search Console includes AI Overviews and AI Mode information in the general performance report, and Google documentation treats a follow-up inside AI Mode as a new query. The row is real data about a real user action, just not a classic search.
Can I separate AI Mode traffic from classic search in Search Console?
Not at query level. The generative AI performance reports contain no query-level data, and the main performance report mixes AI Overviews and AI Mode information into the general figures. The source does not state any supported way to split them apart.
Do AI Mode follow-ups really count as new queries?
Yes. The Google documentation Mueller linked to states that a user asking a follow-up question within AI Mode is essentially performing a new query, and that all impression, position and click data in the new response are counted as coming from that new user query.
Does filtering for long conversational strings still find AI queries?
Only some of them. Search Engine Roundtable notes the SEO community has used that method for years, and the reported examples show AI Mode turns can be one or two words long. A length-based filter catches the long ones and misses the short ones.
Did Google change anything here?
No. Google made no announcement and shipped no change. Mueller clarified documented behaviour after practitioners posted examples, and the data has been in the performance report all along.
If your Search Console reporting still treats every row as a classic search, the averages you are presenting are carrying AI Mode conversation turns inside them. Relevant Audience can go through your query data, separate what is genuinely search from what is a conversation with an AI, and rebuild the reporting on top of that.
