Businesses can now mark themselves as 'temporarily closed' on Google

The number of businesses forced to close during the coronavirus outbreak is rising by the day. A number of these closures are temporary in nature, and now Google has stepped up by letting businesses mark themselves as "temporary closed" in Search and on Maps.

First noticed by SearchEngineLand, this new option is now available on Google My Business. To use it, business owners will have to sign in, then click "Info" on the left hand menu, navigate to "Close this business on Google" on the right hand side, and then click "Mark as temporarily closed."

Google says businesses which have temporarily adjusted their working hours, as well as those whose closures are not persistent, can use the "special hours" feature to inform their customers of the new conditions.

The changes were announced on March 15 by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who said the company will use a combination of government data, info from businesses themselves, and AI tech to accurately mark businesses as temporarily closed.

These distinctions are important to customers, who are now faced with a huge number of closures from businesses in many parts of the world. According to one estimate by software solution provider Purple, visits to retail stores fell 41 percent in Europe in the week of March 16–22, and 16 percent in the U.S. in that same period.

COVID-19 — the disease caused by coronavirus — has so far killed more than 18,500 and infected more than 416,000 people. The outbreak has been worsening in the U.S. in recent weeks, with more than 65,200 confirmed cases and 928 deaths.