A Google Search Console email reportedly tells a site owner how many people chose that property as a Google Preferred Source. The email’s metric is labeled “Preferred source selections”—it is not a newsletter or paid-subscriber count. Search Engine Roundtable reported the message on October 6, 2026, with its example data dated October 5; the screenshot masks the number, so the report does not reveal the count.
What the email reports
According to Search Engine Roundtable’s October 6, 2026 report, the email heading says, “People are choosing domain as a preferred source.” It lists “Preferred source selections” for an individual property and dates the data October 5, 2026. The article’s screenshot does not make the figure readable.
The report describes a first-hand example email, not a public Google announcement. It does not establish how many site owners received the email, which properties were eligible, or whether the metric is available in Search Console itself. The reported figure is property-specific; it is not a Google-wide total.
What a Google Preferred Source is
A Preferred Source is a choice made by a reader in Google Search. It lets someone select publications they want to see more often in relevant Top Stories results when those sources have fresh, relevant articles. Google’s August 12, 2025 launch announcement described the feature as a way to choose favorite news sources; it did not describe it as a paid subscription or newsletter signup.
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Google’s Preferred Sources Help page says selected sources can appear in Top Stories for relevant queries. It also says a preferred-source badge may appear for those sources in AI Mode and AI Overviews. This is a visibility preference within specified Search features, not a promise of a particular ranking, impression count, or traffic level.
How to read the different Preferred Sources figures
The email’s property-level count and Google’s public adoption figures measure different things. Google’s dated posts refer to unique sites or sources selected across the feature, not to a particular property’s users or to email and paid subscribers.
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| Figure | Scope and unit | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| “Preferred source selections,” data as of October 5, 2026 | One property; the email label is reported by Search Engine Roundtable. The count in its example is not readable in the published report. | A property-level figure, not a global total. The report does not clarify the metric’s exact counting method. |
| More than 200,000 unique sites selected, reported April 30, 2026 | Google’s public global adoption figure at that date. | A count of unique sites, not users or total selections. Google’s April 30 post also says readers are “twice as likely to click through” after marking a site as preferred; it does not provide the methodology or sample size behind that comparison. |
| More than 600,000 unique sources selected, reported August 20, 2026 | Google’s public adoption figure at that date. | A count of unique sources, not a count of property-level selections or subscribers. Google’s August 20 post introduced an interactive button publishers can embed. |
These public totals are snapshots using Google’s stated unit at different dates. They should not be read as a trendline for the email’s property-level metric.
What publishers can do with the email
Search Engine Roundtable says the email recommends adding Google’s interactive Preferred Sources button to webpages. Google’s button announcement says readers can use it to add a site as a Preferred Source and return to where they left off. The report also says the email included JavaScript implementation instructions and a path to upgrade from a static image button, along with a two-minute survey asking whether and how Google should report this data in Search Console.
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The button gives readers a way to make the choice; it does not guarantee that they will select the site or that the publisher will receive a specific amount of traffic. Google reported that more than half of early Labs users chose four or more sources in its 2025 launch post, but that was a finding about early users, not all Search users.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What remains unknown
- The numeric count in the example email: the published screenshot does not show it clearly.
- Who received the email, how many properties were included, and the eligibility criteria.
- Whether the same property-level metric can be viewed in Search Console rather than only in the reported email.
- The precise counting method behind “Preferred source selections.”
Until Google publishes further details, the safest interpretation is the one in the reported label: a count associated with people choosing a particular property as a Preferred Source, not a conventional subscriber list.
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