Google Tests Source Preferences Button Inside AI Mode Citations

Google is testing a "Source preferences" button directly inside the AI Mode citations sidebar, letting users add or remove preferred sources without leaving the interface. SEO consultant Damien Andell spotted the test and posted a video of it in action on X, writing: "'Source preferences' directly in AI Mode to manage your preferred sources."

The button sits in the citations panel — the sidebar in AI Mode (Google's conversational, generative search experience) that lists the pages informing a given answer. Click it and your preferred sources list opens inline, where you can curate which sites AI Mode should lean on.

Search Engine Land News Editor Barry Schwartz, who reported the sighting, said he does not see the feature in his own account, which marks this as a limited test rather than a rollout. No timeline for broader availability has been confirmed.

What is confirmed and what is speculation?

Two facts are solid. First, the "Source preferences" button exists in at least some AI Mode sessions, per Andell's video. Second, it does what the label says: opens the preferred sources list for editing.

Everything beyond that — how widely the test runs, whether Google weights preferred sources in answer generation or only in citation display, and when or if this ships — remains unconfirmed. Google has not issued a statement on the test.

Where did preferred sources come from?

The feature has a short but real track record. Google AI Mode began supporting preferred sources in May, giving users the ability to tell the system which publishers they favor. Until now, that management lived outside the AI Mode flow. Moving the control into the citations sidebar collapses the distance between seeing a source cited and acting on it.

Why should publishers and SEOs care?

For site owners, the test signals a direction: Google keeps investing in user-level source control within its AI search surfaces. If preferred sources gain prominence — in citations, in answer synthesis, or both — brands that build habitual audience preference could see a measurable edge in AI Mode visibility.

For users, it's a friction reduction. One click from the citation list replaces a trip into settings.

The open question is whether preference lists meaningfully change what AI Mode retrieves and synthesizes, or merely reorder the citation strip. Google hasn't said, and the test itself doesn't answer that.

What to watch next

Monitor whether the "Source preferences" button expands beyond this limited test, and watch for any Google statement clarifying whether preferred sources influence AI Mode's answer generation itself — not just which links appear beside it.