Google badges Preferred Sources in AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google is now surfacing Preferred Sources inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, which means link visibility in these AI search surfaces is increasingly tied to prior audience relationships. That advantages publishers already recognized by Google’s personalization system and makes it harder for newer sites to break through. For streaming and video publishers watching referral traffic from search, the key signal is whether Preferred Sources badges become a standard layer across more Google AI results beyond AI Overviews and AI Mode.