Four New Google Features You May Have Missed

Over the last few days, I've been playing with Google and found four interesting new features. Not sure how many of them will survive, but it's fascinating to see how Google is constantly improving its travel products. Here are my findings:

1) Companies can now create a Google MyBusiness custom URLs in order to redirect easily their customers to Google Reviews. In order to claim your URL, open your MB page, get on the info tab, and click on add short name. A short URL will be created (example: g.page/ThePavilionsBali/review). By clicking on the link, customers will be automatically redirected to Google's how-was-your-stay survey:

2. Travelers can now directly search for hotel brands in Google Travel. Last time I checked, only destinations' queries were possible:

3. My friends at Mirai found out that a new Google Ads feature, called Room Clustering, has been launched, unifying "certain room, price and rate results in order to avoid repeating information and to simplify the display for the user". For more details, make sure to give Mirai's article a read here.

4. My last finding is about the Google Search Console. To be completely honest, though, I am not entirely sure if this feature was already implemented or if I simply overlooked it, but it seems like you can now know exactly if and when your website switched over from desktop-first to mobile-first indexing. In order to verify it, log into the SC and click on settings.