Google has rolled out its February 2026 Discover core update, a system-wide change aimed at refining how articles appear in Google Discover.
“This is a broad update to our systems that surface articles in Discover,” Google said.
The company said the update is initially being released to English-language users in the United States, with a broader rollout to other countries and languages planned over the coming months. The full rollout could take up to 2 weeks.
According to Google, the update is designed to enhance the Discover experience “in a few key ways,” including prioritising content that is more locally relevant to users based on their country, cutting back on sensational headlines and clickbait, and elevating more in-depth, original, and timely reporting from publishers with demonstrated expertise in specific subject areas, as determined by Google’s assessment of site content.
Because of its emphasis on local relevance, the update could initially lead to a reduction in Discover traffic for non-US outlets targeting American audiences. Google noted that this effect may diminish or disappear as the update expands beyond the US.
Google also said its systems evaluate expertise on a topic-by-topic basis rather than across an entire site, meaning publishers that cover a wide range of subjects can still surface in Discover if they show depth in particular areas. As an example, the company said:
“A local news site with a dedicated gardening section could have established expertise in gardening, even though it covers other topics. In contrast, a movie review site that wrote a single article about gardening would likely not.”
The company added that Discover will continue to “show content that’s personalised based on people’s creator and source preferences.”
Google said internal testing showed that “people find the Discover experience more useful and worthwhile with this update.”
