Google now emails how many readers picked your site as a Preferred Source. Write the number down.

Google Search Console has started emailing site owners a number one person quoted calls a first: how many people chose their site as a Preferred Source. Search Engine Roundtable reported the email on October 6. The count in it is dated as of October 5, 2026.

What the email says

The email describes Preferred Sources this way: it “lets Google Search users choose the publications they want to see most.”

Then it ties the setting to AI search. In Google’s words: “When readers select your site, your content can appear more often across features like Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.”

Note the word “can”. Google does not say how much more often, or for which searches.

The email then gives three things:

One number. It lists the property name and a line called “Preferred source selections,” with the count as of 2026-10-05.
A recommended action. Google asks owners to add its interactive JavaScript button to their pages. The email says this takes two lines of HTML. Sites that use the static image button are told to switch, so readers can add the site “in fewer steps.”
A short survey. Google asks if owners knew about Preferred Sources before, if the email was clear, how helpful the count is, and how often they would want it.

What the email leaves out

The number is a count of selections. It is not a report on clicks, searches or appearances in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

There is also no Preferred Sources report inside Search Console, as far as anyone quoted has found. One search professional in the article wrote: “No report in GSC that I can find.” Another called the number itself a first.

So today you have one data point, on one date, delivered by email. The article does not say which sites get the email or when the next one comes.

Why this matters if you rank but lose the AI answer

Preferred Sources is a choice readers make about you. Google says that choice can bring your content up more often in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

One person quoted wrote: “First time I’m seeing this.” Now some owners can. If you publish articles and you compete with a rival for the same readers, two people quoted call this the first count they have seen of people who chose your site as a Preferred Source.

A decision rule for this week

Use your answers to two questions: did you get the email, and what button do your pages carry today?

You got the email?	Your pages today	Do this
Yes	No button	Record the number. Decide which pages should carry Google’s JavaScript button, and ask your web person to add it.
Yes	Static image button	Record the number. Switch to the JavaScript button, as the email recommends.
Yes	JavaScript button	Record the number. You have done what the email asks. Set a date to compare.
No	Any	Do not assume the count is zero. Check who receives Search Console email for each property, then check again.

Two notes on that rule. First, the email speaks of “publications” and “content.” If your site has no articles or news, ask whether the button belongs on it at all. Second, a button asks readers to act. It is not a ranking promise, and Google makes none.

How to keep the number useful

One count tells you little. A dated series tells you more. Keep a simple log:

Date of the count. Use the date in the email (2026-10-05 for this round), not the day you read it.
Property. Note which Search Console property the email covered.
Count. The “Preferred source selections” number, as written.
Button state. None, static image or JavaScript, and the date it changed.
Pages with the button. Which templates or articles carry it.

When the next count arrives, you can see whether the number moved after you changed the button. That is still not proof that one caused the other. It is a better question to ask than you had last week.

You can also look at the public pages of a rival’s site to see if they carry a Preferred Source button. That is public information, and it tells you whether they are asking readers for the same choice.

What to do this week

Search the inbox of every Search Console owner for Google’s Preferred Sources email, sent this week.
Write the count down with its date and property name.
Check which button, if any, your article pages carry.
If Google’s JavaScript button fits your site, give your web person the two-line install from the email.
Answer Google’s survey if you want this count to become a report in Search Console.
Put a reminder on your calendar to look for the next count.

If AI names a rival instead of you, New Reward’s war campaign includes the Rival Map: where AI names you, your rival, or nobody, for the questions your customers ask. Dated.