It appears that search engine giant Google is rolling out a new feature that will assist searchers in reaching out to businesses competing for their attention.
The latest endeavor on this front has to do with the company’s local service ads (LSAs) displaying an innovative list. Hence, the latter features competing firms that a user might be interested in, despite already making up their minds about working with one business.
This way, it allows the user to reach out further to more competitors in the industry. Moreover, this new launch seems to be in line with Google’s attempt to evolve all of its features as it also added a new messaging button for the company’s LSAs.
But not everyone is happy and plenty of complaints on the matter are coming forward on X where Anthony Higman was one of the first people to notice and certainly expressed his dismay on the subject.
Screenshot: Anthony Higman / X
He says that each time the tech giant tries to do something great with a new endeavor, it ends up being let down with another rollout that nullifies the greatness. And this new launch might be a great example, he added.
The fact that Google is actually giving users other options to text businesses despite the user already opting to work with one means the company wishes to make more money by motivating you to talk to others. This way, they can charge others along the way. And he feels it's high time the company stopped messing with the realms of advertising.
Screenshots of the latest feature were displayed and it featured one of the company’s ad liaisons justifying the rollout with claims that Google witnessed people contacting several firms providing services to users. So the goal behind this new feature is to get rid of friction so everyone can benefit.
But even after the rollout, the number of clients that make use of the offering is nearly similar to the rate at which several providers were contacted when they were not available. For now, the team seems to be busy monitoring engagement quality while working with providers on this front. Hence, it is being compared to other message leads when not in use.
Therefore, right now, Google says all the providers that chose to message are eligible to showcase themselves in the list for message others. Hence, contacting several different business providers is clearly observed behavior.
Google says the performance on this front keeps getting evaluated and plenty of evidence does exist that provides how performance seems to contrast from other kinds of message leads.
As far as the user’s stance is concerned, we can see how this would make things simpler for clients who like to engage with multiple providers at the same time. However, from what can be seen at this moment in time, the rate of uptake nor the quality of engagement that has to do with providers is being impacted.
Moving on to how some leading members of the Google user community were reacting to the news, well, not everyone was all praise for the Android maker. Many people were jetting out their reservations on the subject, referring to it as just something that’s plain and simply wrong.
Others spoke about how it shouldn’t be happening and that it’s a matter of sheer duplicity which shouldn’t have any room on the platform. And then some added how it was upsetting for businesses that had a great clientele but now would have to deal with this new hurdle, thanks to Google.
Read next: SMBs Gearing Up for an AI Makeover
The latest endeavor on this front has to do with the company’s local service ads (LSAs) displaying an innovative list. Hence, the latter features competing firms that a user might be interested in, despite already making up their minds about working with one business.
This way, it allows the user to reach out further to more competitors in the industry. Moreover, this new launch seems to be in line with Google’s attempt to evolve all of its features as it also added a new messaging button for the company’s LSAs.
But not everyone is happy and plenty of complaints on the matter are coming forward on X where Anthony Higman was one of the first people to notice and certainly expressed his dismay on the subject.
He says that each time the tech giant tries to do something great with a new endeavor, it ends up being let down with another rollout that nullifies the greatness. And this new launch might be a great example, he added.
The fact that Google is actually giving users other options to text businesses despite the user already opting to work with one means the company wishes to make more money by motivating you to talk to others. This way, they can charge others along the way. And he feels it's high time the company stopped messing with the realms of advertising.
Screenshots of the latest feature were displayed and it featured one of the company’s ad liaisons justifying the rollout with claims that Google witnessed people contacting several firms providing services to users. So the goal behind this new feature is to get rid of friction so everyone can benefit.
But even after the rollout, the number of clients that make use of the offering is nearly similar to the rate at which several providers were contacted when they were not available. For now, the team seems to be busy monitoring engagement quality while working with providers on this front. Hence, it is being compared to other message leads when not in use.
Therefore, right now, Google says all the providers that chose to message are eligible to showcase themselves in the list for message others. Hence, contacting several different business providers is clearly observed behavior.
Google says the performance on this front keeps getting evaluated and plenty of evidence does exist that provides how performance seems to contrast from other kinds of message leads.
The team is monitoring the quality of engagements with providers via this feature & see it's comparable to that of message leads when it is not used. All providers who are opted into messaging are currently eligible to show up in the "message a few others" list. 2/2
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) October 25, 2023
As far as the user’s stance is concerned, we can see how this would make things simpler for clients who like to engage with multiple providers at the same time. However, from what can be seen at this moment in time, the rate of uptake nor the quality of engagement that has to do with providers is being impacted.
Moving on to how some leading members of the Google user community were reacting to the news, well, not everyone was all praise for the Android maker. Many people were jetting out their reservations on the subject, referring to it as just something that’s plain and simply wrong.
Others spoke about how it shouldn’t be happening and that it’s a matter of sheer duplicity which shouldn’t have any room on the platform. And then some added how it was upsetting for businesses that had a great clientele but now would have to deal with this new hurdle, thanks to Google.
Read next: SMBs Gearing Up for an AI Makeover
