Verified checkmarks used to be a status symbol before Elon Musk ruined everything by allowing the plebs to purchase said status. Google, however, might be bringing back the status symbol nature of verified checkmarks, as it seems intent on introducing them to its search results.
This is only a test at the moment, which only a limited subset of Google users are seeing. But what they are seeing will definitely seem familiar to anyone who’s been on a social media site in the past few years.
The checkmarks are blue and show up next to business links, which makes this a case of good news/bad news. The good news is the plebs don’t have access, the bad news is that influencers and “media personalities” don’t either. At least not right now.
Obviously, the checkmarks are meant to indicate that you’re dealing with a genuine link for the company in question, and that’s definitely a needed new feature given how spam-infested the Google search engine is. Then again, rather unsurprisingly, Google plainly states it “can’t guarantee the reliability” of a business or its products.
Google public affairs spokesperson Molly Shaheen told The Verge:
We regularly experiment with features that help shoppers identify trustworthy businesses online, and we are currently running a small experiment showing checkmarks next to certain businesses on Google.