Google expands “Preferred Sources” and lets users fine-tune Search, Discover and Google News feeds

Google is rolling out new controls meant to make its news and search surfaces feel more tailored to individual preferences, using a mix of publisher prioritization, interest-based feed tuning, and more customizable audio briefings. The changes apply across Search, Discover and Google News, according to a product announcement posted by the company on Aug. 20.

At the center of the update is a new “Preferred Sources” button. Google says the button can be embedded by publishers on their own pages, and when a reader clicks it, the selected site is added as a preferred source on Google. Google also says the click takes the reader back to where they were on the publisher’s page, rather than breaking their browsing flow.

Google says preferred sources are designed to show up more often in key areas including Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode within Search. The company also provided a scale marker: more than 600,000 unique sources have already been selected as preferred sources, at least during the period of testing or rollout referenced in the announcement.

The company is also adding more direct ways to tune Discover. Rather than relying solely on prior behavior, Google says that “soon” users will be able to type specific interests into the Google app to refine what they see in their Discover feed. Google later specifies that, in the coming days, users can use a three-dot menu in the feed to tell Google the exact topics or links they want to see more of, or less of, using their own words.

Google said the Discover adjustments will work “on the fly” and that the feed will remember the user’s requests. In the example offered by Google, a user could shape the feed around constraints like eco-friendly kitchen renovation ideas, while also excluding certain subtopics such as camping content from weekend road trip suggestions. The point, per the company, is to make it easier to steer the feed toward the content that matches current intent.

For people who prefer audio, Google said it is expanding customization for daily news briefings in the Google News app on Android. The company says users will be able to curate briefings by choosing specific topics, and it emphasizes that the briefings will include clear source attribution along with links out to full articles.

Google also tied the audio update to a broader effort involving publishers in a “news AI pilot program.” The company says that, thanks to the range of publishers participating in that pilot, audio briefings can include deeper dives into key stories. In this context, the pilot appears to be part of how Google connects publisher content with AI-driven summaries or expanded context for briefings.

Google framed the move as a bidirectional connection between user control and publisher reach. The “Preferred Source” button is described not only as a personalization feature for readers, but also as a mechanism publishers can use to build more direct connections with audiences on Google surfaces.

The company’s announcement leaves some timing and behavior details open. Several capabilities are described as “soon,” and Google did not specify whether the Discover typing interface and the Discover three-dot menu controls arrive at different speeds by language, region, or device. It also did not detail how quickly preference changes propagate across Search, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, or how Google handles conflicts when users select many preferred sources. As with most personalization systems, the company did not publish explicit rules for ranking or weighting preferred sources beyond saying they should appear more often.

Looking ahead, the update sets up new metrics for both users and publishers. For users, the key question will be how accurately the feed tuning matches stated intent and how consistently the system remembers preferences. For publishers, the “Preferred Sources” button creates a potentially measurable funnel from their own sites to Google’s Top Stories and AI-driven discovery. The next phase to watch is the broader availability of Discover tuning and the daily audio curation features across more users and geographies, along with any additional guidance Google provides to publishers via Search Central documentation.