Google is releasing a new “Asian owned” badge for US businesses that will appear on Search and Maps. The purpose of this new seal is to make it easier to find Asian-owned businesses in a user’s local area.
Appearing like a red flower (opens in new tab)business owners can adopt the new optional badge by first accessing their respective Google business account (opens in new tab). In the My Business section, owners will go to View Profile and click on Business Information. By scrolling down to the More section and clicking on “From the company”, they will be able to enable the “Identifies as Asian owned” attribute. After clicking save, the red flower icon will appear in the location’s Business Profile in Google Search and Maps.
We contacted Google and asked if there are any plans to expand the identifier internationally. Officially, there are plans to expand the Asian-owned label to “ad-supported publishers” on Google’s Display & Video 360 marketing platform in the coming weeks, but nothing for other countries.
We’ll update this story if we get a response from Google.
Support local businesses
Since July 2020, Google has been steadily releasing identifiers for small businesses run by historically marginalized groups in the United States. Black-owned businesses were the first to be highlighted. So it was owned by Latinos, veterans, women and, more recently, LGBTQ+ companies.
Leanne Luce, product manager for Google’s search, said in the announcement that the seal’s purpose is to support local communities that have been harmed by recent events like the pandemic and to make them thrive. COVID-19 has tragically affected small businesses, resulting in many closures across the country. Luce also mentions “targeted acts of violence” against the Asian-American community as another driving force behind this new support.
To further fuel the growing business, Google also announced that it is expanding its partnership with the US Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) to help “10,000 Asian-owned Small Businesses” learn digital skills through Grow with Google’s Initiative.
map updates
Google has been producing a lot of cool features for Google Maps apps aimed at both businesses and everyday people. In fact, several were announced during the Google I/O 2022 Conference.
Maps has had some of its features renewed like a new and improved bike navigation. Cyclists will now be able to see what the traffic is like on the road, as well as how steep or windy the streets are. we are still missing Immersive View however, which would allow people to look inside the restaurants before visiting.
For businesses, Google has implemented a new AI to look for possible errors with listings on Maps, namely opening hours. The machine learning model looks for business profiles that have not been updated in a while and tells the owner to update their information.
But these tools are just the tip of the iceberg, as Maps had many hidden tools. We recommend checking our list of 5 Things You Didn’t Know Google Maps Could Do.