Searching for famous people on Google is easy, you usually find them instantly due to all the blogs, biography websites, their personal sites and even Wikipedia. However, searching for people who aren’t famous isn’t that simple, you quickly realize that many have similar names and it’s hard to know the particular person you are looking for. People with no online presence and social media accounts are almost impossible to find. Luckily, Google has a solution for this, meet People Cards.
With People Cards, you can add your information such as name, photo, hometown, location and even education. Those with an online presence can include their social media accounts, their website and so forth. If you want, you can add your email address and even phone number. To create this card, you simply go to Google Search and type “add me to Search”, you will then be guided on how to fill up your information.
Google recognizes that People Cards can be exploited in several ways including impersonation. To avoid this, they will require users to verify their account using phone numbers. Google permits only one People Card per account. A number of mechanisms will also be put in place to protect against abusive and spam content. Among them will be the ability for users to leave feedback about any Card they believe belongs to an impersonator or whose information doesn’t add up.
What if the person you are looking for genuinely shares the same name with other people in the Cards? In this case, the search results will present you with multiple modules which will have additional information. That info will help you distinguish who you are looking for, so naturally, the more information you give on your People Card, the easier it will be for people to find you.
Google hopes this new feature will make life easier for the millions of influencers, entrepreneurs, prospective employees, self-employed individuals, freelancers and pretty much everyone who wants to be found.
The People Cards are already available in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. They are available in English for those searching on their mobile phones. More languages and locations are presumably rolling out soon.