Google has announced it is rolling out a new feature that gives more visibility to businesses owned by black people. The new tool will allow businesses to identify as Black-owned through the company’s Maps and Search listings.
The company last month pledged to support the black community and the latest gesture is a move to fulfilling that promise. It said will support the community with “initiatives and product ideas that support long-term solutions.”
How the new tool works:
- You search for a business through Google.com or Google Maps
- There is a new badge to represent Black-owned businesses — it’s a black heart over an orange three-striped background
- Black-owned businesses need to claim their business on Google and verify they own it by mail, phone or email before they can apply for the badge; it’s not clear how or whether Google can tell if they’re Black-owned.
Google says it has seen “a surge in online searches for Black-owned businesses” within the last few months, as consumers look to spend money at these businesses to show support amid the Black Lives Matter protests.
Google is not the first to come up with such initiative as one of its competitors in the business listing market, Yelp introduced its own Black-owned icon recently. The company recorded a similar increase in searches for the same type of businesses.
Yelp said in its Q2 earnings report that there were more than 2.5 million searches for Black-owned businesses between May 25th and July 10th.
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