Maybe you’ve felt like Google’s AI features are constantly repeating information without giving proper credit to the people who actually broke the news. Well, a change is finally on the horizon. Google is rolling out a major update to its conversational AI features—like AI Overviews and AI Mode—aiming to give trusted websites and primary sources a much bigger spotlight right inside your daily searches.
Google adds preferred sources AI Search in latest update
As previously said, the biggest change hits Google’s core AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google is officially integrating its “Preferred Sources” feature directly into these generative AI answers. If you aren’t familiar with it, this personalization tool lets you dive into your search settings and pick the specific publishers, blogs, and creators you trust the most.
Once you set it up, those chosen websites will get a prominent, clear label whenever they pop up inside an AI-generated response. According to Google’s internal tracking data, giving users this control pays off massively. People are actually twice as likely to click through to a link when it has that familiar Preferred tag attached to it. So far, users have already favorited over 345,000 unique web sources.
Better carousels and giving credit where it’s due
Beyond personal preferences, Google is changing how it structures the space right beneath its AI summaries. When you search for a fast-moving, developing news topic, a highly visible carousel of traditional articles will now appear directly under the AI block. This acts a lot like the classic “Top Stories” grid, making timely reporting much easier to access. A similar carousel focusing on forums and social media discussions will also land soon to highlight firsthand human experiences.
Google is also fighting against low-quality content that just copy-pastes original work. With this in mind, the company is expanding its “Highly Cited” badges. This handy label flags the primary source that multiple other news outlets are actively referencing. It makes finding the original scoop incredibly easy, and the system will even note when a secondary article explicitly points back to a highly influential piece of journalism.
A step toward saving web traffic
This unexpected pivot comes at a key time. Tech creators and publishers have been openly worried that AI Overviews would completely swallow web traffic by answering questions without sending users to actual websites. Google is definitely not slowing down its massive automation push. However, the firm is at least trying to preserve a healthy relationship with the publishers who supply the raw data its AI feeds on.
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