Google Tests Local Car Listings From Dealerships

Google seems to be testing launching a new local feature to let car dealerships showcase their local car and auto inventory on Google Search. This was spotted by Jim Kreinbrink and Dan Shure shared this screenshot below (click on the image to enlarge).

Jim said that Google added these URL paths to their robots.txt overnight:

Disallow: /local/cars/
Disallow: /local/dealership/

When I try to access these URLs, I was getting 404 not found but I can access it randomly at http://google.com/local/cars/ - must be bouncing around different Google servers.

Google just added these to their robots.txt overnight:
Disallow: /local/cars/
Disallow: /local/dealership/

Looks like something new is coming!

— Jim Kreinbrink (@denverseo) April 21, 2021

Here is a specific listing I was able to see myself for local dealerships:

Here is Dan's screenshot:

Are Car Listings on Google coming?! pic.twitter.com/chWq6Dxayq

— Dan Shure (@dan_shure) April 21, 2021

I suspect Google is testing some sort of local auto inventory feature for car dealerships.

Here are more screenshots:

😱Google is getting into the used car business😱

Check it out at https://t.co/VQF5u2EArb

Shout out to @sistrix for spotting this in Google‘s robots.txt pic.twitter.com/s4adu9q5nw

— 🅼🅰🅻🆃🅴 🅻🅰🅽🅳🆆🅴🅷🆁 (@MalteLandwehr) April 21, 2021

Here is a statement from Google:

Last year, as part of our continued efforts to help connect businesses with potential customers, we began working with select car dealers and data providers in the U.S. to pilot new ways for dealerships to showcase their cars for sale directly on their Business Profiles in Search. We've heard from potential car buyers that surfacing this inventory information directly on Google helps them quickly explore and compare available cars, leading to more qualified leads for dealers.

Dealers and related businesses can fill out a partner interest form if they’d like to learn more about this opportunity. The car inventory information is powered by feeds shared directly from dealers or their data providers. Google is not charging a fee for this feature.

Forum discussion at Twitter.