[2] Its purpose is to signal advertisers that they can trust a given channel in the program to produce high-quality content.
[4] It was also introduced in an attempt by YouTube to increase artificial scarcity and ad revenue.
[10] The changes came in the wake of controversies affecting YouTube's advertising platform in 2017, including the appearance of ads on content deemed objectionable to advertisers, as well as a recent controversy surrounding Logan Paul's "suicide forest" video (which caused him to be removed from the program).
[11][12] In August 2018, a report was published on fake video views which contributed to the concerns around YouTube's reputation and the need for a more advertiser-friendly product.
[13] In May 2020, Google Preferred was rebranded as "YouTube Select", with the former iteration to be phased out by the end of the year.