Google just handed publishers a small but potentially meaningful tool in their fight against AI-driven traffic decline. The company is now letting websites embed a ‘Preferred Sources’ button directly on their pages, giving readers a one-click way to signal they want that outlet surfaced more often across Search, Discover, and Google News.
The feature builds on what Google rolled out in May for its AI experiences, including AI Mode and AI Overviews. Since then, users have selected over 345,000 unique sources as favorites — a signal that readers genuinely want more control over what surfaces in their results. Google claims people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when it appears, which is the kind of stat publishers desperate for referral traffic will latch onto.
But there’s a deeper tension here. Google is simultaneously the platform that siphoned away publisher traffic with AI-generated answers and the company now offering a fix. It’s a familiar pattern: platforms disrupt, then offer engagement tools as compensation. The button is genuinely useful, but it’s also a way for Google to say it’s addressing publisher concerns without fundamentally changing how AI Overviews summarize content without requiring a click.
Beyond the button, Google is expanding personalization in two more ways. Readers will soon be able to customize their Discover feed using natural language commands — tapping a three-dot menu and telling Google what they want more or less of, in their own words. Android users will also get the ability to customize audio daily briefings in the Google News app. The move mirrors what social platforms like Bluesky and others have been doing with user-controlled algorithms, suggesting the era of opaque, one-size-fits-all recommendation feeds is fading. Whether publishers can convert these tools into sustainable traffic remains an open question — but at least Google is acknowledging the problem.
