To help businesses celebrate the diversity of their owners, Google Maps is getting a new LGBTQ+ property attribute that will appear in the About tab.
This entirely optional attribute that businesses can assign themselves comes just before the end of Pride month, so customers and owners can better find queer-friendly venues and celebrate the diversity of their neighborhood.
Currently, anyone in the US with a verified Google Business Profile can add this new attribute with a few simple steps:
- go to your business profile (opens in new tab) and click Edit Profile
- Under Business Information, look for the More tab near the top of the page
- Once here, select the category you want to change and set the attribute to Yes or No
- If everything is set up correctly, click save and your company’s Google profile will be updated
The new attribute should help make LGBTQ+ owned businesses more visible to people unfamiliar with the local area. This will allow customers to better find and support these venues and give owners a new forum to highlight their business as a safe space for members of the queer community.
The new LGBTQ+ property tag joins the Black, Latino, Veteran and Women property options deals that were already available on Google Maps.
Companies can use multiple attributes at once to celebrate their diversified ownership
Searching the About tabs at all nearby businesses will be difficult, so luckily, there is an easier option. To find any location in your local area tagged with one of these attributes, you can type LGBTQ+ owned (or one of the others) into the Google Maps search bar and businesses that describe themselves as this will be highlighted.
Like many of its new features, this new LGBTQ+ tag option on Google Maps is only available to US businesses. We expect it to launch in other territories in the not-too-distant future, but we’ve reached out to a Google representative for confirmation.
Looking for Google Maps features you can use anywhere today? Here are five amazing features you might not be aware of.