Google is working on a new verification feature that will make it easier to prevent users from clicking on fake or fraudulent websites. Some users are seeing blue check marks next to business links in Google search results. These signs show that links from big companies like Meta or Apple are not fake and are not copycat sites trying to take advantage of well-known brands.
“We regularly experiment with features that help online shoppers identify trustworthy businesses, and we are currently running a small test that shows checkmarks next to some businesses,” Molly Shaheen, Google’s public affairs spokeswoman, told The Verge.
Shaheen’s colleague Jay Peters noticed these checkmarks next to official site links from major companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Epic Games, Apple, Amazon, and HP. However, when he logged in with a different Google account, the signs no longer appeared. This shows that the test has not yet been offered to a wide range of users.
When hovering over the checkmark, the message “Google’s signals indicate that this business is truly the business it claims to be” appears. According to Shaheen, this is based on several factors, including website verification, Google Merchant Center data, and manual reviews.
Google did not announce when its new feature will be available to everyone
This new search experiment appears to be an extension of Google’s Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) feature in Gmail’s web and mobile apps, which shows check marks next to senders who have adopted the verification platform. Google has not yet made an official statement about checkmarks in search results and has not shared any information about when this feature will be available to more users.