I’ve finally found the best use for Google’s AI Overview

Hate it or love it, AI Overview is now a firm part of Google’s long-term search plans (unless you switch it off). However, if I were to pick a side, I’d fall firmly into the “hate it” camp. The experimental AI feature offers nothing of value whenever it appears; it occupies too much of the search results screen and provides hilariously conflicting info at the best of times. As much as I dislike it, I’ve leveled with the fact that it’ll be part of Search for a while. So, I’ve tried to find a way to live with AI Overview and, if I can, find a good use for it. I think I’ve done just that; naturally, it involves food.

AI Overview sates my appetite for new recipes…

I often rely on Android apps to fuel food inspiration, whether searching for dinner ideas, researching differences between existing recipes, or uncovering techniques to enhance my kitchen skills. Sometimes, when I’m completely out of ideas and recipe books aren’t cutting it, the internet comes to my rescue.

That latter point hit hard earlier this week. After returning from a brief holiday, I was too lazy to find something to cook. I’d typically use Samsung Food, but user recommendations can only go so far. I had exhausted my usual avenues, so I turned to AI Overview. I wanted to make a hearty stew the day after I returned, but what about the rest of the week? And what about morning and afternoon meals? So, opening Google Search on my computer, I typed:

7 day meal plan.

That’s it. It is a straightforward, open-ended query, but AI Overview got surprisingly good mileage out of that brief prompt. It recommended three daily dishes (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for seven days — essentially a complete meal plan. See the results below.

Better yet, each recipe included a brief description, links to their source website, user ratings, expected time demands, and images of the results. Essentially, it’s the same offering I’d get across several search pages condensed albeit presented in a much tidier, collapsible list.

Stumped by the useful results I received from this usually disappointing feature, I tried several other queries to understand just how acute and obtuse I could be with my prompt. My tests included:

• 5-day family meal plan
• Create a meal plan for kids under 8
• Create a meal plan for an active athlete taking part in a marathon at the end of the week
• Meal plan for lots of lemons
• 3-day meal plan for a lazy single person living alone
• Create a meal plan for a vegetarian (no lettuce)
• Create a three-course meal for a pasta lover
• Create a 12-course meal for a French dinner party

Each offered more curated recipe results based on the keywords I used. See some of the results below.

The “12-course meal” suggestion would be particularly brilliant for piecing together dinner parties that demand plenty of sides. In contrast, the “athlete” meal plan offers plenty of carbo-rich foods for those who need nutrient-dense fuel. AI Overview impressed me here, but it’s not flawless. Given there’s a finite selection of recipes online, I often found it repeated for some meals within the same plan. For instance, the “Meal plan for lots of lemons” query included a duplicate muffin recipe. In fact, it suggested I eat muffins for breakfast three out of the five days of that particular plan.

AI Overview’s meal suggestions shouldn’t be viewed as an alternative to a plan developed by a professional. Remember, this is the same service that suggested users indulge in glue-topped pizza just a few months ago. Although results include the recipe’s origin, which means I could manually check if each recipe is up to scratch, I would guard against accepting the data offered at face value.

I’d also like to reiterate my reason for using AI Overview here. The goal was to spur some creative spark; it was never to create a viable meal plan offering a holistic complement of nutrients and a broad range of cuisine. For the more serious meal planning that demands exact nutrition balancing, I’d opt for a service specifically designed with this in mind, like Samsung Food or MyFitnessPal.

There’s a clear distinction between the results I received on my PC versus my Pixel phone. I used Chrome on both, but my Pixel 8 only produced a simple Gemini-like results layout with no rich links to any recipes. I’ve already explained how rich the results on desktop are. You can see the difference between the two in the image above. This renders the feature a little less useful for many users. While the mobile version did take my locality into account, that information didn’t really enhance the results I received.

At this point, you’re probably wondering why I wouldn’t just use Gemini for this task. Given the results I received on Android, I probably would query Gemini or ChatGPT on mobile, but AI Overview has both beat on desktop. As Gemini is fundamentally a chatbot, it only provides simple text output with no outbound links or established recipes to follow. AI Overview’s integration within Google Search means it can leverage actual results and present them in a Gemini-like manner with even more information stuffed into each option. And unlike Google Search, it compresses the myriad results into a more user-friendly collapsible list that I can expand.

I’m still unsatisfied with AI Overview, especially its mobile layout. Google isn’t about to give up on the feature either, while negative sentiment continues to mount daily. Despite its many shortcomings, I can at least credit it with rekindling my love for lemon poppy seed muffins.