Google AI Mode & AI Overviews Add Preferred Sources & New Carousel

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Barry Schwartz / Executive Editor

Google is officially rolling out preferred source labels within AI Mode and AI Overviews and adding a new carousel to AI Mode and AI Overviews, as well. Plus, Google said the highly cited label is expanding to more search results (which is not specific to AI Mode and AI Overviews).

Duncan Osborn, Product Manager, Google Search wrote, "we’re bringing your Preferred Sources directly into our AI experiences, and launching new features to help you discover original content, creator insights, and unique perspectives."

Preferred Sources in AI Mode & AI Overviews

We spotted Google testing this a week ago and now it is officially rolling out. Duncan wrote, preferred sources is "coming to AI Overviews and AI Mode, so you’ll be able to easily spot links in AI responses from the sources you’ve already selected. Just like in Top Stories, your Preferred Sources will be clearly labeled to stand out."

Here is what this looks like:

As a reminder, preferred sources is global for all languages and we know "people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source, and people have already selected more than 345,000 unique sources," Google also reminded us.

Google has update this help document to add in AI Mode in the text and in the example. Plus, the docs walk you through how to add the button to your site.

If you love this site, you can add this site as a preferred source on Google by clicking here.

New Carousel In AI Mode & AI Overviews

Google is also rolling out new carousels in the AI results, within AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google said "for some searches when you have a question about a developing topic, you'll start seeing a prominent carousel, which will also highlight your Preferred Sources."

Duncan said, "this will help make timely articles more visible on a wider range of queries."

Here is what this one looks like:

Plus, for some searches where you might be looking for insights from others, some may soon see a similar carousel with helpful perspectives from online discussions, forums, and social media.

And this is what this one looks like:

Highly Cited Label Expands

The highly cited label which rolled out in 2022 in top stories is now expanding to more search results. This is coming to "to more web article links on the search results page."

I don't think this is specific to AI Mode or AI Overviews, I asked Google and Google said, "we're expanding it to more article links on the Search results page."

Plus, Google will indicate when an article explicitly references a Highly Cited source.

I mean, it is nice Google is making an effort with these preferred sources but I'd prefer the Google traffic from 5 years ago versus having preferred sources.

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