If you have questions about the Order with Google integration in general, you can look up the general information for the most common questions on the Order with Google support overview page.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are some frequently asked questions and answers about the Order with Google integration:
- What is an Action Link?
- An action link acts as a bridge between Google's platform and the partner's website, allowing users to navigate to a specific page on the partner's site and place an order. With Action Links, users can directly submit a takeout or delivery order with the partner.
- When is the transition to the Redirect user experience happening and what is the reason for the change?
- Over time, we observed that users prefer finishing their food ordering process directly on the partner's and merchant's websites. As a result, we will be shifting to the Redirect user experience on July 1st, 2024.
- What is the technical investment for the transition to the Redirect consumer experience?
- The technical investment for this transition is minimal. Partners will need to add the action links to their E2E feeds, which is a simple and straightforward process.
- Do I need to make any changes to my Actions Center account?
- No, you don't need to make any changes to your Actions Center account for this transition.
- What if I have different URLs for takeout vs delivery?
- The Action Link lives at the Service entity level. You therefore have the flexibility to either:
- Create different Action Links for takeout vs delivery services.
- Share a single Action Link URL across both takeout and delivery services
- The Action Link lives at the Service entity level. You therefore have the flexibility to either:
- What will happen to my menus?
- We recommend continuing to send your menus. We will use these menus to power our core search experiences, helping users who want to find different types of food more easily. The highest quality menu will also be displayed to users helping build even more brand equity with your customers.
- Can I go directly to a native Redirect integration?
- To request a native Redirect integration, you can contact Google POC or file a case in the Action Center.
- What if I already have an Ordering Redirect integration?
- In this case no additional actions are needed. Your E2E integration will be turned down on July 1st, 2024 and your Redirect integration will continue to serve on Google.
- How will the transition to a native Redirect integration work?
- We will follow up with additional information on how to transition to a native Redirect integration later in 2024. If you are interested in forgoing the E2E action link integration and going directly to a native Redirect integration, please contact your Google POC or file a case in the Action Center.
- Do I need to continue to send RTUs after July 1st, 2024?
- We recommend continuing to send RTUs for Service data such as ETAs & Fees as these data will appear on the Redirect consumer experience. RTUs related to Menus such as removing items from the menu or updating the price of a menu item, etc can be disabled after July 1 .
How can I identify any issues related to the processing of Action Links?
- While undergoing batch processing, your feed will be validated for action links as well. You will see a validation issue in the Ingestion History module if there are any issues with the processing of these action links.
What happens to the infrastructure that has been set up to support transactions for Food Ordering with Google?
- Once we have transitioned your integration to the Redirect experience, you won't need infrastructure like fulfillment APIs, Async order updates, Payments, fraud protection, etc., for transactions on Google. Please refrain from shutting down any of these essential infrastructure components unless specifically instructed by Google. These components play a critical role in the end-to-end (E2E) experience and should remain operational until Google guides the transition of your integration to the Redirect experience.
- Async Order Updates
- You do not need to continue sending Async Order Updates after July 1, 2024.
- Fraud prevention
- As the users will be forwarded to your ordering front end, you will have the full ability to manage fraud prevention on your infrastructure.
- Payments
- The Action Link would forward users to your ordering UI which would have the payments flow executed outside of the Google infrastructure. As such, you don't need to integrate payments in addition to updating the feeds with Action Link details.
- Authentication
- The users will have to choose the authentication options available on your platform after they are redirected for the ordering experience.
- Async Order Updates
- Once we have transitioned your integration to the Redirect experience, you won't need infrastructure like fulfillment APIs, Async order updates, Payments, fraud protection, etc., for transactions on Google. Please refrain from shutting down any of these essential infrastructure components unless specifically instructed by Google. These components play a critical role in the end-to-end (E2E) experience and should remain operational until Google guides the transition of your integration to the Redirect experience.
How can I validate that I have added action links to all of my services?
- If you don't include an action link in batch data feeds for a service entity, a warning indicating the absence of action links will be visible in the detailed view of the ingestion history.
Will dashboards such as Business Overview and Restaurant Status Report still be available after I add action links?
- Once the End-to-End experience is fully turned down, the following tools will no longer be available:
- Place Action Metadata
- Optional Feature Configuration
- Booking Server Configuration
- Quick Testing
- BQ Exports
- Restaurant Status Report
- Business Overview
- Once the End-to-End experience is fully turned down, the following tools will no longer be available:
How will I monitor my integration once my action links are being served?