Google made publisher loyalty installable

Google has released a button that publishers can install on their websites.

Click it and that website becomes one of your Preferred Sources. Google can then show it more prominently in Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode.

There is something genuinely good in this.

Instead of leaving every source decision to an algorithm, readers can say which websites they value. Google says people are twice as likely to click a source they have chosen.

But the location of the button is revealing.

Publishers place it on their own websites so readers can improve their chances of seeing those publishers again inside Google.

The relationship begins on the independent web.

The preference belongs to Google.

This is the strange bargain facing publishers as search becomes more mediated. Building an audience is no longer only about persuading people to return directly. It can also mean asking people to configure the platforms standing between them and the website.

The button may still be worth using. It offers readers some control and gives smaller publications another potential route into AI-mediated discovery.

But it is not the same as an email subscription, RSS feed or bookmark.

Those help someone return to the publisher.

This helps Google remember that they wanted to.

A preferred source is not necessarily a direct relationship.

Sometimes it is a platform remembering the relationship for you.