Google Search gets function for preferred sources

Google is experimenting and changing the search – without adding another AI function. In future, search results from websites that you have specified as a preference will be displayed in the so-called Top Stories.

"With the introduction of 'Preferred Sources' in the US and India, you can select your favorite sources and stay up to date with the latest content from the websites you follow and subscribe to –, whether it's your favorite sports blog or a local news site," writes Google in the blog post. It is not yet clear when the function will come to Germany.

The Top Stories are the results that appear in the Google News app or under the News tab in the search. If Google recognizes a news-related query, such Top Stories appear automatically. The selection is made via a button. Not all websites can be saved. If news from them appears, they are also marked as such in the Top Stories. To be able to use the function, it is of course necessary to log in with a Google account.

Preferred sources instead of AI Slop

It is not entirely clear whether the preferred sources will then also appear more frequently in the regular search results. However, if you are logged in to Google, you should automatically see more websites as search results that you have visited more frequently. Basically, this is what you would expect from Google and all its tracking. Nevertheless, more SEO-friendly content sometimes ends up higher up in the search results.

Google has been trying for a while now, starting with the Helpful Content Update, to give more really helpful content a good rating and thus display it higher. Generative AI makes it easier to produce so-called AI slop, i.e. AI garbage, and prepare it for SEO. This makes it all the more important for Google to find suitable content for searchers.

(emw)