Google Preferred Sources Grow; Gmail Gets Brand Lift; Pichai on AI Overviews

The week’s updates are reshaping what can surface inside Google’s AI-generated answers, with implications for visibility, trust, and brand recognition. Google has expanded Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode, new research reveals how personal data like Gmail content boosts brand presence in AI Mode, and CEO Sundar Pichai openly acknowledged that some AI Overviews are “more opinionated than it should be.”

Here is how these developments affect your strategy.

Preferred Sources Now Live in AI Overviews & AI Mode

Google’s Preferred Sources feature, previously limited to Top Stories in regular search, is now rolling out inside AI Overviews and AI Mode responses. Users can select the websites they want to see more often, and those choices now carry a visible label when the site appears in an AI-generated answer. Sites can invite their own readers to add them. Since December’s global rollout, the number of selected sources has surged from roughly 90,000 to more than 345,000.

Why This Matters

Preferred Sources status now directly influences your link labels in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Top Stories. As more search activity shifts into AI answers, that label becomes a clearer visibility signal tied directly to reader loyalty.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Marie Haynes, Founder of Marie Haynes Consulting, noted: “Google just made so that any website can invite their readers to add them as a preferred source, making it more likely for that site to be seen in AI Overviews and AI Mode.”

Glenn Gabe, President of G-Squared Interactive, called it a strong addition for publishers with loyal audiences. “Like I’ve shared before, make sure your audience knows how to add you as a preferred source. Google even provides instructions on how to add a button that drives users to adding you as a preferred source.”

Geertrui Laleman, Senior AI Search Optimization Specialist at Semrush, connected the update to brand recognition. “Google personalization is becoming part of AI visibility. With Preferred Sources in AI Overviews and AI Mode, users can now choose the websites they trust most. Google says people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source. The part I find interesting is what this means for brand visibility. AI visibility is no longer only about being mentioned or being cited. It is also about becoming a source people recognize, trust, and actively want to see in their results.”

Gmail Content Linked to Higher Brand Visibility in AI Mode

iPullRank published a report on how Google’s Personal Intelligence feature changes which brands appear in AI Mode. The findings point to email as the strongest signal. In the test, brands linked to a user’s own data appeared more often in AI Mode once Personal Intelligence was switched on, with Gmail being the most influential signal.

Why This Matters

Brands that users interact with via email can influence AI Mode recommendations once Personal Intelligence is active. The numbers are approximate; the test used a small sample and measured outputs, not Google’s internal systems.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Jacques Corby-Tuech, Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Trade Nation, saw a positive angle for email teams. “It’s not all doom and gloom for email marketers,” he wrote.

Google’s CEO Calls an AI Overview ‘More Opinionated Than It Should Be’

Sundar Pichai discussed the state of AI Overviews in an interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast. He said one AI Overview answer was “more opinionated than it should be.” The interview was recorded after Google I/O. Pichai presented the result as room for improvement in how AI Overviews answer some queries.

Why This Matters

Subscriptions counting toward preferred-source status means your off-platform audience can feed a signal that now appears in AI answers. Google is still tuning AI Overviews, by Pichai’s own account, so the summaries above your links can change.

Theme of the Week: The AI Answer Is the Surface That Counts

Each story this week comes back to Google’s AI answers. Preferred Sources lets readers pick the sites they want to see in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Personal Intelligence shows personal data, especially email, moving brands up in AI Mode. Pichai admitted those same answers can be more opinionated than they should be. Earning a place in the AI answer is one job, and trusting what it says is becoming another.