Google Looks To Serve Up The Freshest Food And Drink Specials On A Search Platter

The Google Business Profile on X (Twitter) recently announced a new feature for Search’s restaurant and bar profiles. This feature will allow these businesses to highlight events like daily specials and deals, ensuring they can keep potential customers informed of timely events as they use Search. Ideally, this will also help these small businesses gain more attention on Search as AI continues to falter.

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Initially spotted by Search Engine Land (via The Verge), the Google Business Profile on X has revealed that food and drink businesses will soon have the ability to prominently display specials and promotions at the top of their Google Business Profile. Simply share “What’s Happening” at your business using Google Posts, or connect a social account like Facebook to use that to update through the What’s Happening functionality. The feature will roll out to single businesses in the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the UK, but so far, no timeframe has been provided.

Isn’t this just more advertising under a different name?

Of course, looking at this feature cynically, one could easily frame the ability for businesses to quickly highlight time-sensitive deals and promotions within Google Search as another avenue of advertising, something Search is already filled to the brim with. Sure, this is a feature to help small businesses promote themselves, which is greatly needed in a world where conglomerates tend to dominate Google’s Search results, but on the user side, advertising is advertising, whether it’s an annoying pop-up or a way to see a restaurant or bar’s specials in your Search results, yet another feature taking up room on the page squeezing out the rest of Search’s results.