WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Google under Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) on Thursday introduced a new tool to help publishers combat traffic losses from AI-powered search features. The company is now allowing readers to mark websites as 'favorite sources' they want to see highlighted more frequently across Google Search, Discover, and Google News.
Publishers can embed the interactive 'Preferred Sources' button directly on their websites, enabling readers to easily designate trusted sources. Google said that people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when available, potentially driving more traffic to publishers' sites.
The launch follows Google's May rollout of Preferred Sources across its AI experiences, including AI Mode and AI Overviews. Since that launch, people across the web had selected over 345,000 unique sources through this method. Users can add a site as a favorite publisher by visiting Google's source preferences page and searching for a publisher by name or website.
Googleintroduced the feature as the search and advertising company addresses concerns from publishers about traffic declines caused by rapid growth in AI-powered search results. The tech giant operates a dominant search engine and advertising platform used by billions of people globally.
Alongside the new button, Google said that readers will soon customize their Discover feed in Google's app using natural language commands. Readers can tap any three-dot menu in the feed and tell Google what topics they want to see more or less of, allowing Google to refine the feed in real time.
Google is not alone in developing AI-powered feed-tuning tools. Several major social media platforms have recently launched user-controlled algorithms that allow people to fine-tune recommended content.
Android users will also be able to customize their audio daily briefings in the Google News app, according to Google.
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