GPay gets Business Pages; Search, Maps get new badges for women entrepreneurs

Google said that it will enable search in English for “women-led”, “women-led restaurants,” “women-led clothing stores” and more on Google Search and Maps.

Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai at Google for India Event (Google)

Google hosted the Google for India event in India today. At the event, the company announced the introduction of Business Pages on Google Pay.

This new feature will enable business users to create easy catalogues of their products and services and direct people to them through a unique URL. Interested buyers can chat with the homepreneur about their order and pay within the chat-based interface on Google Pay.

In addition to introducing Business Pages on Google Pay, Google today introduced special badges for women-led businesses on Search and Maps. The company said that it will enable search in English for “women-led”, “women-led restaurants,” “women-led clothing stores” and more on Google Search and Maps. This is being done in order to make it easier for people to support women-led businesses.

Google said that this is based on an opt-in feature on Google My Business where women-led businesses can identify as such on their Business Profiles. This feature will not only enhance the online presence of hundreds of women-owned businesses but it will also enable customers to support them by purchasing from them, leaving reviews and sharing their business profiles.

Apart from introducing these features, Google announced a partnership with the NASSCOM Foundation. As a part of this partnership, Google is committing $500,000 in funding to NASSCOM Foundation via Google.org. “With this support, they will reach 100,000 women agri workers with digital and financial literacy training in the six states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh,” Google wrote in a blog post.