Google is testing a “Source preferences” button inside the AI Mode citations sidebar, letting users view and modify their Preferred Sources list without leaving the AI answer. Search Engine Roundtable reported the test on Monday, October 19.
The test was spotted by Damien Andell, who posted a video of the feature in action on X. “Source preferences” directly in AI Mode to manage your preferred sources, he wrote.
AI Mode Source Preferences: What The Button Does
According to the report, the new button sits in the citations sidebar — the panel that lists the sources behind an AI Mode response. Clicking “Source preferences” opens the user’s Preferred Sources list, where sources can be added or removed.
That placement is the detail that matters. Until now, managing Preferred Sources meant going to a separate settings surface. Putting the control next to the citations means a user can react to the answer in front of them: see a source they trust, add it; see one they do not, remove it — in the same session where the preference will actually take effect.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz said he could not see the test himself, which is normal for a limited experiment. The evidence is Andell’s video and screenshots from it, so this should be read as a test sighted in the wild, not a rollout Google has announced.
Preferred Sources: How We Got Here
Google AI Mode began supporting Preferred Sources in May, as part of the wider Preferred Sources feature that lets users name the sites they want to see more of in news surfaces. Google said on October 15, when it moved inline links higher in AI Mode and AI Overviews, that use of Preferred Sources had grown more than sevenfold since the start of the year, and that its news carousels would highlight them in more locations and languages.
The citations sidebar is also becoming more capable in its own right. It is where AI Mode shows the pages behind an answer, and Google has been steadily adding reasons for users to open it — more inline links, more prominent end-of-answer links, and now, in this test, a preferences control.
For publishers, the connection between the two threads is direct. Our coverage of Google moving links higher in AI Overviews and AI Mode explains the October 15 changes, and our explainer on how brands track visibility inside AI answers covers why being a chosen source matters. The Universal Cart launch in Search and Gemini shows the same pattern elsewhere in AI Mode: controls moving into the answer surface itself.
Why It Matters
The central entity is the Preferred Sources list, and this test changes one of its key attributes: where it is managed. A preference buried in settings is set once and forgotten; a preference offered inside the citations sidebar can be tuned answer by answer, which should make lists longer, fresher and more personal. For publishers, that raises the value of being the source a reader chooses in the moment — the citation is no longer just a click opportunity, it is an audition for a standing preference that shapes future carousels and answers. For Google, it is another step toward AI Mode as a surface users configure, not just query.
Background
Preferred Sources began as a way for readers to tell Google which publishers they trust, first in news surfaces and then, from May, inside AI Mode. It sits within a year of changes that have pushed AI Mode from a bare answer box toward a browsable, link-rich surface: inline links moved higher on October 15, official-page tests at the top of responses, clickable creator names on video results, and now preference management inside the citations panel itself.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
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