Google
Google lets readers mark their preferred outlets
🧒 Discovery
When the AI answers directly, people stop visiting news sites. Google is adding a button to say 'this outlet, I do want to see it'.
📰 Essential
A new button lets readers mark an outlet as a preferred source across Search, Discover and Google News. It answers the traffic losses that AI-driven search inflicts on news sites.
🔬 Expert
Publishers can embed the button on their own sites, and readers can also set preferences from a dedicated Google page. The control existed in Top Stories and was extended in May to AI Mode and AI Overviews: by then more than 345,000 distinct sources had been selected, and clicks to a preferred source were twice as likely. It leaves AI summarisation itself untouched and relies on readers opting in.