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Google is now making it easier to find Black-owned businesses

Google is now making it easier to find Black-owned businesses

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Google added a similar feature for businesses that were “Women-Led”

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Google is launching a new tool that allows businesses to identify themselves as Black-owned through the company’s Maps and Search listings. The new feature is part of the company’s pledge announced last month to support the Black community with “initiatives and product ideas that support long-term solutions.” 

When searching for a business through Google.com or Google Maps, you’ll now be able to see a   new badge to represent Black-owned businesses — it’s a black heart over an orange three-striped background, like the one you can see in these images.  They 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 actually tell if they’re Black-owned. In 2018, Google introduced similar badges for businesses to display if they were either “Women-Led” and/or friendly to members of the LGBTQ+ community.  

Image: Google

Within the last few months, Google says it has seen “a surge in online searches for Black-owned businesses” as consumers look to spend money at these businesses to show support amid the Black Lives Matter protests. One of Google’s main business listing competitors, Yelp, which introduced its own Black-owned icon recently, has seen a similar increase in searches for the same type of businesses. Yelp said in its Q2 economic average report that there were more than 2.5 million searches for Black-owned businesses between May 25th and July 10th.