Google on Monday began letting online visitors tell its news website what topics they want to tune into.

People can click on "stars" to mark groups of stories on preferred subjects to signal Google News to watch for updates or developments, according to Google software engineer Jude Britto.

"When you star a story in Google News, it's one way to let us know that you're interested in that subject," Britto said in a blog post.

"When there are significant updates, we will alert you by putting the headline in bold so you can get more information."

The 20 most recently "starred" stories will be tracked in a section added to the Google News page, according to Britto.