Google Introduces ‘People Cards’ in India to Let You Build Your Public Profile for Search Engine
In an attempt to bring more of LinkedIn functionalities into its search engine, Google has launched a new Search feature in India that enables influencers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, or anyone else who wants to be easily discovered online to create a virtual visiting card.
Called Peoples Card, Google said it launched the feature first in India because of the special “affinity” of Indians who look up their own names on the search engine.
Users can now create people cards describing what they do by just signing into their Google account. They can then look up their name on Google search. This will prompt a new option called “add me to Search” or “get started”. Tapping this option will open a form that asks users to provide a description of themselves, their picture, links to their website and social media profiles, and optionally, their phone number, address, work and education details, and email address.
There is more: by default, Google fetches the image of the user associated with his or her Google account.
If the user keys in more details, it would be easier for others to find them on Google Search. The company has several measures to curb potential misuse of the new feature including a limit on the number of people cards a Google account can create — it is now set to one.
Lauren Clark, Product Manager for Search at Google, said in a blog post. “We have a number of mechanisms to protect against abusive or spammy content, and if you come across low quality information or a card that you believe was created by an impersonator, you can tap the feedback link to let us know. If you no longer want your people card to appear in Search, you can delete it at any time.
“For the millions of influencers, entrepreneurs, prospective employees, self-employed individuals, freelancers, or anyone else out there who wants to be discovered, we hope this new Search feature will help the world find them. For people in India searching on mobile phones, people cards are rolling out in English starting today,” wrote Clark.