Google a business by name and you’ll see something new in the knowledge panel on the right: your distance to the business, from the number of miles, down to the number of feet if you’re real close.
I didn’t see this even earlier today. The above screenshot is from desktop, but clearly it’s another “mobile-first” update. It shows in the Google Maps app – and may have been showing there for some time – but does not show in the Google app.
Google has loaded up the knowledge panel continuously, with “critic reviews,” the return of “Reviews from the web,” and “Send directions to phone” having popped up just in 2016. Google had been adding features to it before then, too, like “peak hours.”
Who knows where Google is headed with this? I wouldn’t be surprised if “distance to business” went away for a while, and then got reincarnated as an AdWords extenstion.
This addition is many things, but if nothing else, it goes to show how much Google knows about you and your location. Kinda unnerving.
What do you make of the “distance to business” addition?
