Google rolling out Preferred Sources globally and announces Spotlighting subscriptions

Google is rolling out Preferred Sources globally after launching the feature in the US and India last August. Plus, Google announced a new feature Spotlighting subscriptions that highlights links from your news subscriptions within Gemini and will later come to Google Search via AI Overviewa and AI Mode.

Preferred Sources. Preferred sources let searchers star sources within the Top Stories section of Google Search, and then Google will use that information to show more stories from that starred source. It was in beta in June and then rolled old in the US and India in August. It is now rolling out globally.

Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search, wrote, “We’re now launching this feature globally: in the coming days, it will be available for English-language users worldwide, and we’ll roll it out to all supported languages early next year.” “People have selected a wide range of preferred sources — nearly 90,000 unique sources, from local blogs to global news outlets,” he added.

Google told me that when someone picks a preferred source, they click to that site twice as much on average.

How it works. You click the starred icon to the right of the Top Stories header in the search results. After you click the star icon, you will have the option to select your preferred sources, that is if a site is publishing fresh content.

Google will then start to show you more of the latest updates from your selected sites in Top Stories “when they have new articles or posts that are relevant to your search,” Google added

Spotlighting subscriptions. Google also announced Spotlighing subscriptions, it is a new feature that highlights links from your news subscriptions, “making it easier to spot content from sources you trust and helping you get more value from your subscriptions.” Google said it will also prioritize links from your subscribed publications, and show these links in a dedicated carousel.

This is first coming to the Gemini app in the coming weeks, with AI Overviews and AI Mode to follow.

Why we care. Top Stories can send nice traffic to publishers, so showing up as the preferred source can be a great way to see that traffic. You may want to find an acceptable way to encourage your loyal visitors to select your site as a preferred source, such as add icons to your site and newsletter informing readers they can star your site.

Hopefully, this helps the publishing community find more traffic and revenue opportunities.