Google Maps’ New Feature Helps You Find LGBTQ+ Friendly Places
To help businesses celebrate the diversity of their owners, Google Maps is getting a new LGBTQ+ ownership attribute that will appear on the About tab.
This completely optional feature that businesses can assign themselves comes just before the end of Pride Month so patrons and owners can better find local queer-friendly spots and celebrate the diversity of their neighborhoods.
Right now in the US anyone with a verified business profile on Google can add this new feature with a few easy steps:
- Go to your business profile (opens in new tab) and hit edit profile
- See the More tab near the top of the page under Business information
- Once here, select the range you want to change and set the attribute to Yes or No
- If everything is set up correctly, press Save and your business Google profile will be updated
The new feature will help make LGBTQ+-owned businesses more visible to people who aren’t familiar with the local area. This will allow patrons to better locate and support these venues and provide a new platform for owners to expose their business as a safe space for members of the queer community.
The new LGBTQ+ ownership tag joins the Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned and women-owned options business that was already available through Google Maps.
Businesses are able to use multiple features at once to celebrate their diverse ownership
It’d be hard to search through tabs for just about all businesses nearby though, so thankfully there’s an easier option. You can type LGBTQ+ owned (or one of the others) into the Google Maps search bar to find any places in your local area tagged with one of these attributes and businesses that describe themselves. If so, they will be highlighted.
Like many of its new features, this new LGBTQ+ tag option on Google Maps is currently only available to businesses in the US. We expect it to roll out to other regions in the not-too-distant future, but we’ve reached out to a Google representative to get confirmation.
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