Google gives publishers a Preferred Sources button to embed, and says it doubles click-through

TechCrunch·medium signalXBlueskyLinkedInCopy link

Google launched a button publishers can put on their own sites that marks them as a preferred source across Search, Discover and Google News, including inside AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google says people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when one is available, and that over 345,000 unique sources had been selected this way as of May 2026. It is a response to publishers losing clicks to AI-generated answers, though it puts the burden of recovery on the publisher's own audience.