Alphabet announced on Wednesday that it will update the "Discover" feed within its flagship Search application, enabling users to follow specific publishers and creators to receive more content from their followed sources.
This update builds upon a feature launched last month, which allowed users to select preferred news websites and blogs for the "Top Stories" section in search results.
According to Alphabet, users will see additional content types on the Discover feed in the coming weeks, including articles from publishers and creators worldwide, YouTube Shorts, and posts from X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. The company indicated that more content source types will be added to the page in the future.
Through these initiatives, Alphabet aims to provide users with greater control over their browsing content while expanding the Discover feed's content scope to include more diverse information sources.
However, it remains unclear what criteria Alphabet has established for creator content to appear on the Discover page, as the company has not yet responded to inquiries on this matter.
The feature operates as follows: when users encounter content from a particular publisher or creator, they can click on the name to view all content from that entity on a dedicated page and select "Follow." Alphabet stated that it will subsequently deliver more content from users' followed sources.
This series of feature updates comes as publishers experience significant traffic declines due to Alphabet's artificial intelligence (AI) search technology. In response, the search giant has even launched a product called "Offerwall" to help publishers reduce their dependence on advertising revenue by generating income through alternative channels.