Google has launched an embeddable button that publishers can place on their own websites, letting readers mark the outlet as a preferred source with a single click, according to TechCrunch. Once a reader opts in, the preference follows them across Google Search, Discover, and Google News — and carries into the company's AI features, including AI Mode and AI Overviews, where content from favorited outlets surfaces more often.
The button builds on Preferred Sources, the personalization feature Google began rolling out in May. Adoption has been meaningful: more than 345,000 unique sources have been selected so far, and Google says its research shows people are twice as likely to click through to an outlet they have favorited when it appears in results. Readers can also add outlets by name or website directly from Google's source-preferences page.
For news organizations, the appeal is that the button turns a single loyal visit into a durable signal. A reader who taps it on a publisher's own site gives that outlet recurring visibility across Google surfaces every time they search or browse afterward — a direct mechanism for converting an engaged audience into repeat exposure.
Google is pairing the release with a set of personalization updates on its own surfaces. Users can now reshape their Discover feed with natural-language instructions, telling Google which topics they want to see more or less of, or make the same adjustments through a three-dot menu on individual items. On Android, Google News users can customize an audio daily briefing inside the app.
Taken together, the moves thread user-chosen sources through both Google's traditional results and its newer AI experiences — giving readers more control over whose journalism they see, and giving publishers a tool for cultivating the audiences that actively seek them out.