Google Launches Preferred Sources Feature for Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode

Google announced on August 20, 2026 that it is rolling out a "Preferred Sources" feature across Search, Discover, and Google News. The feature lets readers select specific publications as preferred sources, which then receive a badge and increased visibility in Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode for those users. Google also published official documentation in Google Search Central explaining how publishers can implement an embeddable button to help readers make the selection.

What was announced

Mrinalini Loew, General Manager of Google Search Ecosystem, published a blog post detailing three new personalization features. The centerpiece for publishers is the Preferred Sources system: an interactive button that publishers can place on their web pages. When a reader clicks the button, the site is added to their preferred sources list on Google, and the reader is returned to the page they were reading.

Alongside the publisher button, Google introduced natural-language Discover feed customization, where users can describe in plain text what topics they want to see more or less of, and customizable audio news briefings in the Google News app on Android.

What changed

Before this announcement, Google Search did not offer a formal mechanism for readers to signal source preferences that would alter how content appears in Top Stories or AI-powered search features. The Preferred Sources system creates a direct publisher-reader connection within Google's surfaces.

When a user designates a site as a preferred source, the documentation states that the site's content becomes "more likely to appear" in Top Stories, marked with a "preferred" badge. In AI Mode and AI Overviews, the same preferred sources receive a badge visible to users who selected them.

Details and availability

The feature is available globally in all languages where Google Search operates. Preferred sources appear in Top Stories worldwide, and in AI Mode and AI Overviews in all locales where those features are available.

Eligibility is limited to domain-level and subdomain-level sites. For example, https://www.example.com/ and https://code.example.com/ qualify, but a subdirectory path such as https://www.example.com/blog/ does not.

Google provides three implementation methods for publishers:

• Standard JavaScript (recommended): Two lines of HTML — a script tag loading Google's publisher library and a div element with a specific attribute. The button is automatically localized and supports light or dark themes.
• Advanced JavaScript: For publishers who want custom design assets, Google provides an ES Module import or a standard script callback queue that allows programmatic control over the button's appearance and trigger.
• Deeplink: A URL format (https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=example.com) that publishers can use in text links, images, email newsletters, or social posts when JavaScript is not available.

Google states that implementing the button is not required to appear as a preferred source. The company reported that users have already selected more than 600,000 unique sources through the feature.

Context

The Preferred Sources system builds on Google's existing Subscribe with Google infrastructure — the publisher.js library is served from news.google.com/swg/js/v1/. It arrives alongside other recent changes to how Google surfaces publisher content in AI-powered features, including the expansion of generative UI elements in AI Overviews and the introduction of Search Profiles for creators and publishers.

The feature gives publishers a new tool to cultivate direct reader relationships within Google's ecosystem. By making preferred sources visible in AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google is integrating the preference signal into the same surfaces where an increasing share of search interactions occur.

What has not been confirmed

Google's announcement and documentation do not describe how the "more likely to appear" language translates into measurable ranking or display changes. The documentation does not specify whether preferred sources receive preferential treatment in the underlying ranking algorithm or only in the presentation layer for users who have opted in.

It is also unclear whether the 600,000 sources figure represents sites that have implemented the button or simply sites that users have added through other means. Google does not state how the preference interacts with its existing content policies or quality systems for Top Stories and AI Overviews inclusion.

Sources

• Personalize the content you see on Search, Discover, and News — Google Blog, August 20, 2026
• Guide to Preferred Sources in Google Search for Web Publishers — Google Search Central Documentation