Google launches virtual visiting card feature in search for users, professionals

Google, today, announced a new feature that allows people to add themselves to Search. While the feature is primarily meant for influencers, entrepreneurs and more, it’s actually available to anyone. Using this, you can make a virtual visiting card for yourself, which will show up when someone searches for you on Google.

“The new feature is aimed at helping the millions of individuals, influencers, entrepreneurs, prospective employees, self-employed people, freelancers, or anyone else out there who wants to be discovered and help the world find them,” the company said in a blog post. The feature, called People Cards, can be created by searching for your name after signing into your Google account.

You can also search for “add me to search”, which will prompt the website to ask for your details. To make a people card, people will need to upload an image of themselves, add a bio, links to their social profiles and more. Your phone number and email address are also required for verification, but you can choose whether to make them publicly available. Google may ask for additional information for verification too.

In a way, People Cards are a version of the Blue Tick for verified profiles on Twitter and Instagram. The difference though is that this has lesser oversight, meaning it shouldn’t be taken as a certificate of authenticity by Google. In essence, it makes it easier to search for yourself on Google.

“To make sure people find helpful and reliable information, Google has put together a variety of protections and controls to maintain the quality of information on people cards,” the post says. These safeguards include allowing only one people card per Google account and adding a unique phone number for each account. Users will have the option to opt-out of this feature at any time, which will take their cards off search. There will also be a feedback button for others to notify Google about incorrect or low quality cards.

On the other hand, this also lets Google access a lot of information about users in a digitized and planned manner. It could help the company build its AI algorithms as well, and improve its information on users.