Google adds personalization to Search and News

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced Thursday new personalization features across Search, Discover, and Google News designed to give users more control over content and help publishers build direct connections with readers.

Google released an interactive "Preferred Sources" button that publishers can embed on their pages. When readers click the button, it adds the site as a Preferred Source on Google and directs them back to where they left off on the publisher’s page. Users have already selected more than 600,000 unique sources, and publishers can access the button code through Google Search Central documentation.

The company said users will soon be able to customize their Discover feed by tapping any three-dot menu to tell Google the exact topics or links they want to see more or less of in their own words. The feed will adjust immediately and remember user requests.

Google is also making it easier to customize daily audio briefings in the Google News app on Android. Users can now curate briefings by choosing specific topics, with clear source attribution and links to full articles.

The preferred sources appear in Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Publishers participating in Google’s news AI pilot program will provide deeper dives into key stories in the audio briefings.