Google’s new ‘Preferred Sources’ lets you choose which news outlets dominate your top stories

New Delhi: Google announced in a blog post the launch of a new feature called Preferred Sources in Search, designed to allow users greater control over the news content they see within Top Stories, on Tuesday.

This update, initially available in the US and India, enables users to select their favourite news outlets to receive more prominent visibility of articles from those sources in their search results.

According to Duncan Osborn, Product Manager at Google Search, the feature lets users customise their news experience by highlighting content from websites they follow or subscribe to, such as sports blogs or local news organisations. Once users select their preferred sources, these sites’ articles will appear more frequently in the Top Stories section or in a dedicated “From your sources” area on the search results page, provided that the sources have published relevant and recent content.

To choose preferred sources, users can search for a current news topic and click the icon to the right of Top Stories, which opens a selection interface. Users can then pick any number of sources to prioritise. Following this, refreshing the search results will show more content from the chosen websites. Users retain the ability to manage their selections at any time, and content from other sites will continue to be displayed alongside preferred sources.

Google noted that early users in their Labs programme demonstrated a preference for selecting multiple sources, with more than half choosing four or more. For those who had previously participated in Labs, existing preferences will automatically carry over to the new feature.

Publishers are encouraged to invite their followers and subscribers to designate their sites as preferred sources by utilising guidance available in Google’s dedicated help centre.