Google has quietly given sites like GadgetBond a new kind of “subscribe button” inside Search itself — and if you’re reading this, you can use it to make sure our stories actually show up when you go looking for them. Over the past year, Google has added two big controls that matter for readers of any tech site: a “Preferred sources” setting that boosts your favorite outlets in the Top stories box, and a “Follow” button in the Discover feed that turns your home-screen news stream into something a little more yours.

Here’s the idea in simple terms. When you tell Google “GadgetBond is one of my go‑to sites,” Google doesn’t suddenly replace everything else with us, but it does start looking for opportunities to slot our stories into your results — especially on newsy searches like “Pixel 10 news,” “new ANC earbuds launch,” or “smart home security cameras.” Instead of hoping the algorithm magically decides we’re worthy, you’re explicitly voting us into the mix.

If you want to do that right now, there are two main routes. The first is straight from a newsy Google search. On desktop or mobile, search for something that triggers the Top stories panel (again, try a big product launch or tech news topic), then look for the small icon or star-shaped button to the right of the Top stories heading. Tap or click it, and you’ll land in a Source preferences screen where you can type in gadgetbond.com and tick the box next to our name. From then on, when we’ve published fresh, relevant coverage around whatever you search for, Google says you should see more of our cards in Top stories or in a dedicated “From your sources” section.

The second route skips the Top stories panel entirely. There’s a direct Source Preferences page (Google currently exposes it under its Search settings interface) where you can add sites by URL; type gadgetbond.com, check the box, and your preferences apply across newsy searches, whether or not you came from a Top stories card. Google’s own data suggests people tend to add several favorites — four or more, on average — so throwing GadgetBond into that list alongside your other trusted outlets is very much how this is meant to work, not some hack.

That’s Search. The other half of the story is Discover — the personalized feed you see on Android when you swipe left from the home screen or open the Google app, and on iOS inside the Google app’s home tab. Discover has always been a big, somewhat opaque traffic source for publishers, but Google has started to make it feel more like following a channel, not just being at the mercy of the feed.

The flow there is simple: when you see a GadgetBond story in Discover, tap our name or logo to open a little hub that shows more of our recent coverage, and use the Follow button from that space. Google says you need to be signed in to your Google account for this to stick, but once you are, Discover treats those who follow as a strong signal and gives us more feed real estate on your device. In other words, it’s like subscribing to our newsletter, but at the level of your phone’s default news stream.

Why are we making a thing out of all this? Because Google’s results pages don’t look like they did a few years ago, and that directly affects whether you ever see GadgetBond when you search. Traditional “10 blue links” are being squeezed between sponsored placements, YouTube videos, forum threads, social posts, and AI-generated summaries that try to answer your question without you clicking anything. At the same time, updates to Google’s ranking systems and its “helpful content” work have hit a lot of news and review sites, especially those that lean heavily on generic or AI‑generated articles instead of original reporting and testing.

For smaller or mid‑sized brands, that shift means simply “doing good SEO” often isn’t enough to guarantee visibility. Google itself tells publishers to build recognizable, trustworthy brands — and Preferred sources plus Discover follows are the first time that advice has turned into an actual setting you can toggle. When you choose GadgetBond as a preferred source or follow us in Discover, you’re giving Google a clear, user-originated reason to put us in front of you more often, even as the rest of the page keeps evolving.

We’re doing our part on the GadgetBond side: writing in our own voice instead of churning out copycat posts, and organizing our coverage so you can actually find the answer you need instead of wading through SEO sludge. But in a world where algorithms change constantly, having that extra layer — you telling Google “yes, this site is one of my defaults” — matters more than it ever has.

So if you like reading GadgetBond when you’re deciding what to buy, how to set up your tech, or whether a shiny new gadget is actually worth it, consider taking 30 seconds to lock that in. Head to Google’s Source preferences, add gadgetbond.com, and hit the Follow button when you see us in Discover. It’s a tiny tweak on your side, but it tells Google — in the clearest possible language — that you want GadgetBond in your search results and your feed, not just whatever the algorithm feels like serving you that day.