Google Search tests verified checkmarks for reputable companies

Google search has always had one serious downside: if you're not careful, you can easily click on a fraudulent website that imitates a real company. Now the company appears to be testing a long-overdue solution: blue checkmarks that show that a company is reputable.

According to a report by , the checks appeared alongside official website links for companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Amazon The edge. However, the checks won't appear for all users and Google has confirmed that the feature is still in testing.

“We regularly experiment with features that help shoppers identify trusted businesses online, and we're currently running a small experiment that displays checkmarks next to specific businesses on Google,” a Google spokesperson said The edge.

When you hover over a check mark, the message “This symbol is displayed because Google's signals indicate that this company is who it claims to be” appears. Google cannot guarantee the reliability of this company or its products.”

The implementation appears to be based on Google's Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) feature. This first appeared for Gmail and added authenticated logos for emails from participating companies. The implementation varies across search tests, but may be based on the same database of organizations.