Google is rolling out three personalization features across Search, Discover, and Google News, headlined by a new interactive Preferred Sources button. Google announced the changes in a blog post Thursday, which also covers new Discover feed controls and audio briefings in Google News.
More than 600,000 unique sources have been selected through Preferred Sources so far, Google notes, up from more than 345,000 in May.
A New Preferred Sources Button
Websites can now embed an interactive Preferred Sources button on their pages. Clicking it adds the site as a Preferred Source and directs the reader back to where they left off on the publisher’s page. The old badge, by contrast, sends readers to Google’s source preferences tool.
Sites selected as Preferred Sources are more likely to appear in Top Stories, per Google’s documentation. In AI Overviews and AI Mode, selected sites can be highlighted with a “preferred” badge. The button code for the new embed is available in Google’s Search Central documentation.
Natural Language Discover Controls
In the coming days, Google app users will be able to tap the three-dot menu on any Discover card. From there, they can tell Google, in their own words, what topics or links they want to see more or less of. The feed adjusts and remembers those requests.
Discover already lets people follow or unfollow topics and tell Google which topics or sources they don’t want to see. The natural language option adds a written request as a third way to shape the feed.
New Audio Briefing Controls
Google now lets you customize daily audio briefings by topic in the Google News app on Android. Each briefing will note where a story came from and link to the full article.
Google credits the range of publishers in its news AI pilot, announced in December, for the briefings’ deeper dives into key stories.
Why This Matters
If you’ve already added the Preferred Sources badge Google introduced earlier this year, check whether the new button replaces it automatically or needs a fresh embed. Switching to the new button matters more now that the source count is up from more than 345,000 in May. The new button returns readers to your page after confirmation, rather than leaving them in Google’s source preferences flow.
Looking Ahead
Check Google’s Search Central documentation to get the code for the new button. Discover’s natural language controls don’t have a confirmed launch date beyond “in the coming days.”
