A new feature for businesses has been launched by Google within Google Maps, which answers commonly asked questions from prospects and customers directly over Android devices. The announcement was made this Friday by Marissa Nordahl of the Google My Business team.
Nordahl said, “We’re excited to announce that Google is bringing Questions and Answers to businesses.” This feature is being rolled out to to some businesses that are using Google Maps for Android. These question and answers can be found by users who view your Google Maps listing.
A few things to note about this new feature:
- Use it to add frequently asked questions and answers that will be accessible right in their listings.
- Businesses will need to have access to Google Maps on Android to get push notifications when a users posts a question or answers someone else’s question.
- Businesses and users can thumb up questions and answers from other people.
According to Google, this is only going to be visible for your own listings over the “next few days.” Later on though, you’ll be able to see it for other listings. “Over the next week we’ll start rolling out this feature more broadly, so that you’ll see the feature on listings other than your own, and other people will be able to ask and answer questions about your listing,” Google added.
Mike Blumenthal has more details on this rollout, where he will answer dozens of other questions you might have about this. Again, this is only out for Android users and is not currently available in the web interface or for iOS users.