Google has implemented a new search feature in India that allows influencers, entrepreneurs, freelancers or anyone else who wants to be easily discovered online to create a virtual business card in what appears to be the company's latest attempt to add more LinkedIn exclusive features in its search engine.
The company said it implemented the feature, called People Cards, first in India due to the special affinity people in the world's second largest internet market have towards searching for their names on the search engine. People tabs currently only support English.
Users can create personal cards about themselves by logging into their Google account and then searching for their name in Google search. This will require a new option called "add me to search" or "start"; tapping will open a form asking users to provide a biography (description) of themselves, their image (by default, Google retrieves the image associated with a user's Google account), links to their website and social media profiles and, optionally, their phone number, address, work and education details, and email address.
Google said the more information a user provides, the easier it would be for others to find it on Google Search. The company said it has put several measures in place to curb the potential misuse of the new feature. One of which is limiting the number of people cards a Google account can create - it's set to one.
"We have a number of mechanisms to protect against offensive or spam content, and if you come across low-quality information or a card that you think was created by an impersonator, you can tap the feedback link to let us know. If you don't want to anymore that your People tab appears in Search, you can delete it at any time, "wrote Lauren Clark, Product Manager for Google Search, in a blog post.
The People tab appears to be Google's latest step in bringing more functionality into Search and thus reducing a user's dependency on many other services. In this case, the feature is partially aimed at LinkedIn, although users can't add other people they find on Google Search as connections. Two years ago, the company added the job tracking feature to Search in India after unveiling it in the US in 2017.
"For the millions of influencers, entrepreneurs, potential employees, self-employed, freelancers or anyone else who wants to be discovered, we hope this new search feature helps the world find them. For people in India who search on mobile phones. , personal cards will be distributed in English starting today, "Clark wrote.