Google is expanding its Preferred Sources feature to English-language users worldwide and launching a pilot program to test AI-powered features with major news publishers.
The announcement includes updates to how links appear in AI Mode and a new feature that will highlight content from users’ news subscriptions.
Preferred Sources Goes Global
Preferred Sources in Search lets users customize Top Stories to see more from their favorite outlets. Google is now rolling it out globally for English-language users, with all supported languages following early next year.
Google shared usage data from the feature’s initial rollout. Nearly 90,000 unique sources have been selected by users, ranging from local blogs to global news outlets. Users who pick a preferred source click to that site twice as often on average.
Subscription Highlighting
A new feature will highlight links from users’ paid news subscriptions in search results. Google will also prioritize links from subscribed publications and show them in a dedicated carousel.
The feature launches first in the Gemini app in the coming weeks. AI Overviews and AI Mode will follow, though Google didn’t provide a timeline.
AI Mode Link Updates
Google is increasing the number of inline links in AI Mode and updating their design. The company is also adding contextual introductions to embedded links. These are short statements explaining why a particular link might be useful.
Web Guide, which organizes links into topic groups using AI, is now twice as fast and appearing on more searches for users opted into the experiment.
Publisher AI Pilot Program
Google announced a commercial partnership pilot with publishers including Der Spiegel, El País, Folha de S. Paulo, Infobae, Kompas, The Guardian, The Times of India, The Washington Examiner, and The Washington Post.
The pilot will test AI-powered features in Google News. These include article overviews on participating publications’ Google News pages and audio briefings for those who prefer listening. Google says these features will include attribution and link to articles.
Separate partnerships with Estadão, Antara, Yonhap, and The Associated Press will provide real-time information for the Gemini app.
Google says it has partnered with over 3,000 publications, platforms, and content providers in more than 50 countries in the last few years.
Why This Matters
If you’ve been watching how Google handles publisher relationships in the AI era, this announcement outlines their current approach. The Preferred Sources data suggests users who customize their sources engage more with those sites.
The subscription highlighting feature could affect how your subscribed audiences find your content across Google’s surfaces.
Looking Ahead
Preferred Sources is available now for English-language users globally. Full language support arrives early 2026.
The subscription highlighting feature starts in the Gemini app in the coming weeks. The publisher AI pilot has begun with participating publications in Google News. Google didn’t provide timelines for when AI Mode and AI Overviews will get subscription highlighting.
