Excerpt from The Verge
Apple’s rolling out Business Connect, a new tool that lets companies add more information to their listings across Apple’s services, including photos, hours, and special promotions.
Apple will soon start displaying more detailed and accurate business listings, all thanks to the company’s new Business Connect tool.
The feature, which Apple announced on Wednesday, lets businesses claim and edit their listings across Apple’s services, similar to Google’s method for allowing businesses to make changes to the way their information appears on the search engine and Google Maps or Twitter’s recent addition of a Location Spotlight for business profiles.
The tool gives businesses the ability to tweak store hours and fill out their listings by adding header images and other photos to their place cards, which appear on Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and other apps. Through Business Connect, companies can encourage customers to place orders or make reservations by linking to sites like Instacart, OpenTable, or Booking.com through Apple Maps.
With Apple reportedly in the process of developing its own search engine, having accurate business information is even more important and could give it more leverage around Google’s billion-dollar default search deal. It also comes as Apple focuses on expanding its services businesses and builds out an increasingly lucrative advertising arm that could soon expand to more native Apple apps.
Businesses can also take advantage of something called Showcases, a feature that lets companies list special offers, seasonal menus, product discounts, and more. Business Connect is available globally starting today, while Showcases is now available to all businesses in the US and will launch in other countries in the “coming months.”
According to TechCrunch, Apple’s still not getting rid of its Yelp integration, as Apple Maps will still surface photos, reviews, and menus hosted by Yelp. But Business Connect will let companies build upon these listings by adding information that maybe Yelp doesn’t have. Businesses can sign up for the program with their existing Apple ID, and once it’s verified, they can proceed to claim and manage their place card for free.
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