Google gives sites a button readers use to name them a preferred source

On August 20, Google published a button a publisher places on its own page, which a reader clicks once to add that site to their preferred sources in Search. The consequence is that the site's pages appear more prominently in Top Stories, in AI Overviews, and in AI Mode. Google says users have chosen more than 600,000 different sources so far. Two reader-side changes arrived with it: tuning topics in the Discover feed through a three-dot menu, and a customizable audio briefing in Google News for Android.

On August 20, Google published three changes that point the same way: the reader gets more influence over what they see. The first matters most to publishers, because for the first time you can place a button on your own page that changes where your site sits in someone else's search. The preferred source button The new button goes on a publisher's page, and a reader clicks it to add that site to their preferred sources on Google. After that, the site's pages appear more prominently in Top Stories, in AI Overviews, and in AI Mode. Google says users have chosen more than 600,000 different sources so far, which means the feature is not new — but turning it on used to require the reader to dig through search settings. Setup instructions were published in the Search Central documentation. What it changes in a publisher's arithmetic Until now the relationship with a reader was built outside search, through a newsletter or a feed, while search stayed a neutral sieve. This button pulls part of that relationship back inside Google's surface. For a site with a loyal audience it is leverage; for a site living entirely on incidental traffic, little changes. Discover is now tuned in words In the Google app, the Discover feed gains a three-dot menu for asking for more or less content on a given topic, in plain language. The example given has a user asking for kitchen renovation ideas, but only sustainable ones. By Google's description, the feed adapts immediately. The audio briefing Google News for Android gains an audio briefing assembled from topics the user picks. The briefing names its source and links to the full article, and it draws on publishers taking part in Google's news pilot program. What is not confirmed yet The announcement does not say which countries and languages the button is available in, and there is no figure for how much choosing a preferred source actually moves position in results. Discover feed tuning was announced for the coming days, without a date.