Google Expands Personalization Features Across Search, Discover, and News
TLDR
Google expanded its Preferred Sources personalization program with a new embeddable button, natural language Discover controls, and customizable audio briefings across Search, Discover, and Google News.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Google announced three personalization features across its search and content discovery surfaces. The company introduced an interactive Preferred Sources button that publishers can embed on their pages, allowing readers to add sites as preferred sources without leaving the page; Google's documentation notes that selected sources are more likely to appear in Top Stories and can display a "preferred" badge in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google also rolled out natural language controls for Discover, letting users request topics or content adjustments in written form rather than just following or unfollowing topics. Additionally, the company launched topic-based customization for daily audio briefings in Google News on Android. The Preferred Sources program has grown to more than 600,000 unique sources, up from 345,000 in May.