Google launches search feature for night and food shelters

NEW DELHI: The union government has collaborated with Internet giant Google to enable a feature for easily finding locations of food shelters and night shelters set up by the government for those most impacted by the lockdown.

Union minister for electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Now you can use Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant to find out food shelters and night shelters near you and help a needy person.” This has been developed by @GoogleIndia in collaboration with @mygovindia, Prasad posted on Twitter.

The idea behind the launch of the search feature is that while governments are working on setting up several night and food shelters, information about them was not easily available.

All states will be required to provide information about night and food shelters to MyGov which will then pass it on to Google that can then be updated. This seamless flow of information will ensure that the latest information can be searched on Google and will also avoid any possible confusion.

Separately, Google India has also rolled out key updates and recommendations for small medium businesses on how they can make necessary changes on their websites to ensure convenience of their customers since the operations of many small medium businesses have undergone changes such as change in their timings or unavailability of certain products which may become a matter of inconvenience if not communicated effectively to the customers.