Google is testing displaying a business profile listing in an overlay interface within the web search results instead of taking you into the Google Maps interface. So when you click on a business listing in the local pack, instead of it taking you into Google Maps to view more details on that business, Google is testing overlaying that business profile listing in the web search results.
Colan Nielsen spotted this and posted this screenshot of it on Twitter:
Colan wrote, “when clicking on a business in the local pack, Google open up their business profile panel directly in search instead of taking you to the local finder/Google maps view. I imagine this will have an impact on the Google Maps views metric in GBP Insights.” Yea, this likely would have an impact on those metrics, if this does go live.
Google loves overlays and has had them in the Google Maps interface for local pack cards and business profile listings overlays in Google Maps, amongst many other overlay interfaces across Google.
Here is a video of this in action I later found:
It seems that Google location search results are displaying in a different format on result page. When selecting a location from search results, a popup opens and the location can be scrawled. This search from Dubai, UAE.@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/3VKYTDJUoK
— Chinchu KB (@kbchinchu) April 3, 2023
Google is testing scrollable feeds for map pack results, preventing the need for the local finder. Scrollable feeds are a new feature of Search that first started with the popular products grid, and now it looks like map pack results could be next. Source: https://t.co/5HnWRAmQCP pic.twitter.com/j1wS9SYBtF
— SERP Alert (@SERPalerts) April 3, 2023
Also, check out the auto expand map in web search test:
@rustybrick automatically expanding map on hover, new? absolutely disastrous UI when you’re scrolling… pic.twitter.com/R1WnC3bNgU
— Bastiir (@BastiirMatt) April 4, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.