Google Maps update squeezes Mom and Pop

Putting restaurants on the map. Monday’s update of Google Maps included an option to order food delivery straight from the app, Apple Insider reports. Before the update, when a user clicked on a restaurant’s location on a Google map, up popped a search card with relevant information. Now that card will include a “place an order” button that sends the user directly to apps like Seamless, Eat24, and Caviar.

Though both updates make it easier to order food from your neighborhood joint, they aren’t necessarily good news for restaurants.

This development comes on the heels of last week’s announcement from Facebook that it will partner with Delivery.com to offer direct ordering through a restaurant’s Facebook page.

Though both updates make it easier to order food from your neighborhood joint, they aren’t necessarily good news for restaurants. As we reported last week, apps like Seamless take a big bite out of bottom lines. And the Google update will add another layer to the search result rat race: restaurants that appear first on Google Maps (be it through advertising, backlinks to their site, or hundreds of Google reviews) will have an advantage over others. Great news for flashy restaurants that prioritize a strong web presence, but not so great for the mom-and-pop joint around the corner that just got around to installing a router.

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H. Claire Brown is a senior staff writer for The Counter. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Intercept and has won awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, the New York Press Club, the Newswomen's Club of New York, and others. A North Carolina native, she now lives in Brooklyn.