If you’re tired of various unheard-of websites flooding your search results, you no longer have to be bothered by them again, as Google is officially rolling out Preferred Sources. This brand new feature allows you to curate specific or “preferred” sources to more likely pop up in your Google Search results.
The feature has been in the works as far back as June of this year and will be available to English users in the US and India in the near future. According to Google’s blog, the feature functioned more like a browser bookmark during testing, where you may tap the starred icon to the right of the Top Stories header for future reference. If you do, those websites will filter to the top of your search, accompanied by a range of other sources for you to peruse.
Now, as per Engadget’s report, you can search for a topic in Google and then click on the preferred sources option. There, you can type in the name of the publication or website that you want prioritised. The changes should apply after a quick refresh. It is also worth mentioning that there’s no known limit on how many sites you can have as your preferred sources, but giving every website the preferred status defeats the feature’s purpose.
Much like the rest of Google’s ecosystem, sites will retain their preferred status across different platforms as long as they are under the same account. Furthermore, those who have participated in the test should still have their preferences as the feature officially rolls out. Although there is currently no information on when this feature will be available in Malaysia, it is expected to arrive sooner rather than later, much like the AI Overviews feature.
(Source: Google [official blog])
