Google has redesigned the Preferred Source embed button so publishers can add themselves to a reader’s list without sending that reader away from the article. Clicking “Add” now confirms the selection and returns the visitor to the exact spot on the publisher’s page where they had been reading, according to Search Engine Land. The change removes a friction point that previously interrupted the reading session, per the report.
Preferred Sources lets people star specific outlets so Google surfaces more of that outlet’s coverage inside Top Stories. Search Engine Land reported the program moved out of beta in June 2025, launched in the United States and India that August, and later widened into a global rollout in December 2025 before Google extended it to all languages in May.
Adoption has grown quickly. Google told Search Engine Land that people have picked more than 600,000 unique sources so far. That is up from the 200,000 figure the company reported in May 2026, roughly a threefold jump in three months. Google also said readers are twice as likely to click through to a source they have starred, a figure Search Engine Land attributed directly to the company rather than to independent measurement.
That growth curve matters more than the button redesign itself. A signal used by roughly a quarter-million people in the spring has tripled in scale, yet Google has published no comparable participation count for outlets, only for readers. Search teams cannot tell whether the 600,000 selections concentrate among a handful of major outlets or spread across the long tail of sites competing for Top Stories placement. That distribution determines whether the feature is worth building into a site at all.
The friction fix is a retention move as much as a growth move. Earlier versions of the embed asked a reader to leave the article, confirm the action on Google, then find their way back, a sequence that cost publishers the session even when the reader meant to return. Keeping the reader on the page removes the clearest reason a site would skip installing the button: lost engagement at the exact moment the site is trying to earn loyalty.
Google has not disclosed how a Preferred Source selection affects ranking or visibility beyond the click-through claim, and Search Engine Land’s report includes no independent data on downstream traffic. Publishers should treat the click-through figure as a company claim, not a verified lift, until third-party analytics confirm it.
Sites with a loyal, returning audience have the clearest case for adding the embed now that the interaction cost has dropped. Search teams should place the button on high-traffic, high-loyalty pages first, track referral volume from Top Stories before and after installation, and treat any resulting bump as evidence rather than assume the effect Google describes.
Search Engine Land reported the update on August 20, 2026, in an article by Barry Schwartz.
