Google gives publishers a new way to fight AI-driven traffic losses
Google has launched a new "Preferred Sources" button that publishers can embed directly on their own websites, letting readers mark a site as a favourite they want to see highlighted more often across Google Search, Discover and Google News. The move comes as Google faces growing criticism that its AI-powered search features are diverting traffic away from the news and content sites it draws on, and represents an attempt to give struggling publishers a tool to recover some of that lost visibility.
The feature builds on Preferred Sources, which Google rolled out to its AI Mode and AI Overviews in May, having already been used in Top Stories; by that point, more than 345,000 unique sources had reportedly been selected by users. Google says it has found that people are twice as likely to click through to a source they have marked as preferred, and readers can also add favourites via Google's source preferences page. Alongside the button, Google is introducing natural-language customisation of the Discover feed, letting users tell the app what topics they want more or less of via a three-dot menu, as well as customisable audio news briefings for Android users of the Google News app.
- Google launches embeddable "Preferred Sources" button for publisher websites.
- Aims to counter falling traffic caused by AI search features.
- Google also adding natural-language Discover feed customisation for users.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for this move argue it gives publishers a fair mechanism to recoup value being siphoned off by AI-generated answers, which often summarise their reporting without sending readers onward. By letting audiences actively choose trusted sources, it rewards quality journalism and original reporting with a direct traffic benefit, helping sustain the outlets that produce the information AI systems rely on in the first place. They see it as Google acknowledging its outsized role in the traffic ecosystem and offering publishers a practical, opt-in tool to adapt rather than simply absorb the losses.
The case against
Sceptics counter that this places the burden of survival on publishers themselves, requiring them to court reader loyalty one click at a time while Google's own AI Overviews continue to reduce the click-throughs that fund their work. They argue it is a modest gesture that leaves Google as the gatekeeper deciding how visibility is allocated, without addressing the deeper structural imbalance created by a search engine and AI provider effectively competing with the very publishers it depends on for content. Some also worry it entrenches larger, well-known outlets that readers are more likely to select, doing little for smaller or specialist publishers most exposed to the traffic decline.