Preferred Sources in The AI Era

Dec. 25, 2025 /Mpelembe Media/ — Google is introducing new search features and global partnerships to better connect users with digital content in the artificial intelligence era. A primary update is the global rollout of Preferred Sources, which allows individuals to prioritise their favourite news outlets and websites within their search results. The company is also enhancing its AI interfaces by adding more direct links and descriptive context to help people explore the web more effectively. Additionally, Google is launching collaborative pilot programs with major international publishers to test AI-powered summaries and real-time data integration. These initiatives aim to foster deeper engagement between readers and creators while providing more personalised browsing experiences. Together, these advancements represent a significant shift in how information is discovered and consumed across the broader ecosystem.

Google is introducing several new features and updates designed to help users connect with the content and creators they value most, specifically focusing on customisation and improved visibility for trusted outlets.

Preferred Sources and Subscription Highlighting

The Preferred Sources feature, which is currently being launched globally, allows users to customise the “Top Stories” section in Search to prioritise content from their favourite sites and outlets. This feature has already seen significant engagement, with users selecting nearly 90,000 unique sources and clicking through to those sites twice as much on average.

Additionally, Google is launching a feature that highlights links from a user’s news subscriptions. This makes it easier to identify content from trusted, paid sources directly within search results. This highlighting will debut in the Gemini app before rolling out to AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Enhanced Context in AI Experiences

To help users understand why a specific source is relevant, Google is improving how links are displayed in its AI-driven features:

Contextual Introductions: In AI Mode, Google is adding short statements to embedded links that explain why a particular site might be helpful to visit.

Web Guide Expansion: This tool uses AI to organise links into helpful topic groups, helping users discover new sources during complex or open-ended searches. It has recently been updated to be twice as fast.

AI Pilot Programs with Publishers

Google is also collaborating with global news publishers (such as The Guardian and The Washington Post) on an AI pilot program to explore new ways to drive audience engagement. These experiments include:

AI-Powered Article Overviews: These provide users with more context on a publication’s Google News page before they decide to click through to the full article.

Audio Briefings: For users who prefer listening, these briefings provide news updates while maintaining clear attribution and links to the original articles.

To better understand these features, you might think of Preferred Sources as a digital “VIP list” for your newsfeed: by telling the search engine which voices you value most, it ensures those specific creators are moved to the front of the queue whenever they have something new to say.

The global rollout of Preferred Sources is designed to significantly boost engagement by allowing users to prioritise content from their most-trusted outlets. Early data from the feature’s initial phases demonstrates a substantial impact on user behaviour and traffic.

Impact on Clickthrough Rates

According to the sources, the effect on clickthrough rates is notable:

Doubled Engagement: On average, when a user selects a preferred source, they click through to that specific site twice as much as they would otherwise.

Strengthened Audiences: By allowing for the customisation of the “Top Stories” section, the feature helps websites and creators strengthen their connection with their existing audience.

Broad Variety of Sources: The effectiveness of this feature is seen across a vast range of content, with users already selecting nearly 90,000 unique sources, ranging from global news organisations to small local blogs.

Rollout Timeline

The global expansion is happening in stages to bring these increased engagement levels to more users:

English-language users: The feature is currently being launched for English speakers worldwide.

Full global availability: Google plans to roll out Preferred Sources to all supported languages early next year.

This feature is part of a broader effort to provide users with authentic connections to creators they trust while driving revenue and traffic back to the web ecosystem.

To visualise the impact, you can think of the Preferred Sources feature like a priority lane at a busy event: by identifying the “guests” (sources) you most want to see, Google ensures they are moved to the front of your feed, making it much more likely you will stop and engage with them rather than passing them by in the crowd.

In AI Mode responses, contextual introductions serve as short statements that explain why a specific link might be helpful for a user to visit.

These introductions are designed to improve the utility of links within AI-driven search experiences by helping users explore the web more effectively. By providing a brief explanation of what the linked content offers—such as detailing that a specific set of articles contains budget-friendly DIY projects or architectural updates—Google aims to give users the context they need to sort through information and find authentic connections with sources.

To understand their purpose, you can think of contextual introductions as curated “blurbs” on the back of a book: rather than just showing you a title, they give you a quick summary of the value inside, allowing you to decide if that source is the right fit for your needs before you commit to reading it.

Several prominent global news publishers are participating in Google’s new AI pilot programme, which is designed to explore how artificial intelligence can help drive more engaged audiences.

The publishers explicitly named in the sources as part of this pilot include:

Der Spiegel

El País

Folha de S. Paulo

Infobae

Kompas

The Guardian

The Times of India

The Washington Examiner

The Washington Post

Additionally, Google is partnering with other organisations, such as Estadão, Antara, Yonhap, and The Associated Press, to integrate real-time information that enhances results within the Gemini app.

As part of the pilot programme with news publishers, Google is experimenting with two primary features in Google News:

AI-powered article overviews: These are tested on the publishers’ Google News pages to provide users with extra context before they choose to click through to a full article.

Audio briefings: These cater to users who prefer listening to their news updates.

Both features are designed to include clear attribution and direct links to the original articles to ensure traffic is directed back to the publishers.

To understand the nature of this collaboration, you can think of the AI pilot as a joint laboratory where Google and these news outlets are testing new “ingredients” (AI features) to see which ones make the news more accessible and engaging for readers before they commit to reading the full story.

The Web Guide is an AI-powered tool designed to help users navigate the web more effectively, particularly during complex or open-ended searches.

Purpose of the Web Guide

The primary goal of the Web Guide is to help people discover links they might not have otherwise found on their own. It uses artificial intelligence to organise these links into helpful topic groups, providing a structured way for users to explore a subject from different angles. Based on early feedback, both users and websites have responded positively to this method of information discovery.

Recent Updates

Google has recently implemented several updates to enhance the Web Guide experience:

Increased Speed: The tool has been updated to be twice as fast as previous versions.

Expanded Visibility: The Web Guide is now being shown on a greater number of searches.

Improved Access: For users opted into the experiment, the feature is more prominently available within the “All” tab on Search.

To understand its function, you can think of the Web Guide as a knowledgeable librarian who doesn’t just give you a single book, but instead brings out a pre-sorted cart of resources, categorised by sub-topic, to ensure you see the full breadth of information available on a complex subject.

The Preferred Sources feature has a measurable and significant impact on website traffic by prioritising content from a user’s chosen outlets within the “Top Stories” section of Search.

The impact on traffic and engagement is characterised by several key factors:

Substantial Increase in Clickthrough Rates: Early data indicates that once a user selects a preferred source, they click through to that specific website twice as much on average.

Strengthened Audience Loyalty: By allowing for the customisation of search results, the feature helps websites and creators deepen their relationship with their existing audience, ensuring their content is seen by those most likely to engage with it.

Broad Distribution Across the Ecosystem: The positive impact on traffic is not limited to large-scale publishers. Users have already identified nearly 90,000 unique sources, ranging from global news organisations to small local blogs. This ensures that the traffic benefits a diverse range of emerging and established voices.

Support for Revenue and Growth: This feature is part of Google’s broader contribution to the web, which involves sending billions of clicks per day to external sites, helping to drive revenue for creators of all sizes.

To understand how this affects traffic, you can think of it like a personalised newsstand: while the stand carries thousands of titles, the vendor has been told exactly which ones you love. By placing those specific magazines at eye level and within easy reach, the vendor makes it much more likely that you will pick them up and read them every time you visit.

The primary goal of Google’s new AI pilot programme is to explore how artificial intelligence can be used to drive more engaged audiences for news publishers. This commercial partnership programme is designed to adapt the relationship between search engines and news outlets for the AI era.

Key objectives and experimental features of the programme include:

Providing Enhanced Context: One of the main goals is to offer users more information before they click through to an article. This is being tested through AI-powered article overviews on the Google News pages of participating publications.

Catering to User Preferences: The pilot aims to meet the needs of different types of news consumers, specifically by experimenting with audio briefings for those who prefer listening over reading.

Maintaining Traffic and Attribution: A critical goal is to ensure that these AI features continue to support the news ecosystem. As such, the experiments are designed to include clear attribution and direct links to the original articles to drive traffic back to the publishers.

Exploring New Partnership Models: The programme serves as a way for Google to build on its existing history of over 3,000 partnerships by testing new content delivery methods, such as APIs, and paying for extended display rights.

In essence, the AI pilot acts like a “digital movie trailer” for news: it provides just enough context and highlights to pique a reader’s interest and give them a feel for the story, with the ultimate goal of encouraging them to “buy the ticket” by clicking through to read the full article on the publisher’s own site.