Customers can order from restaurants within Google Maps. | Photo: Shutterstock
Restaurants were disappointed in 2024 when Google pulled the plug on Order with Google, a feature that allowed customers to order food directly within Google Search and Maps.
Order with Google was intriguing not only because it was commission-free and restaurants kept the data, but also because so many consumers use Google to search for restaurants.
And it apparently drove a lot of traffic, “multiple-fold” of what DoorDash generated for restaurants, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu revealed during an earnings call in February. (Xu also said Order with Google’s retention and frequency rates were much lower than DoorDash’s because the overall experience was not as good.)
At the time, Google told Restaurant Business that it ended Order with Google because “we’ve found that people generally prefer to complete their food orders on partner and merchant websites.”
Whatever the reasoning behind it may have been, it seemed as if Google was content to cede the job of direct online ordering to other players. Today, consumers can initiate an order on Google Search, which then refers them to the restaurant’s website or some other ordering site.
But then the company announced last week that it is getting back into the game, albeit in a slightly different format than before.
On Thursday, Google unveiled a restaurant ordering feature in Google Maps. It’s part of Ask Maps, an AI chatbot embedded in the app.
Consumers can chat with Ask Maps about nearby restaurants and can complete a pickup or delivery order. Requests can be as granular as “order spicy pad kee mao with seafood for me to pick up on my way home” — the example given in Google’s announcement of the news.
Ask Maps has some “agentic” capabilities. In the example above, the AI will find restaurants that fit the bill and, once the customer selects the restaurant by clicking “Order online,” will put together an order based on their prompt. The customer can then review and pay for the order, all within Google Maps.
Ask Maps currently integrates with Toast and Square and will soon add Uber Eats, meaning tens of thousands of restaurants will be available via the new channel. The only requirement for restaurants is having a Google Business Profile; menu, hours, and location info will all be automatically synced with Ask Maps, and there are no additional fees or commissions.
As of publication time, Google had not responded to a question about why it decided to get back into restaurant ordering.
But there’s no denying that, thanks to the explosion of AI, the online ordering landscape looks a bit different now than it did in 2024. Google clearly views that as an opportunity.
There is a belief that, rather than opening up a delivery app or searching for a restaurant on Google or going straight to a restaurant’s website or app, many consumers will use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude or Google’s own Gemini to find and order food. In some cases, the process will be handled more or less automatically by AI agents with instructions from the user.
So-called agentic commerce could make up about 1% of all U.S. e-commerce spending this year and 10% by 2030, or $190 billion, according to the base case from Morgan Stanley published in December. Consulting firm McKinsey predicted that it will be a $3 trillion to $5 trillion market globally by 2030.
Agentic commerce is starting to show up in the restaurant world. Square in July launched in-app restaurant ordering within ChatGPT and Claude. And in June, DoorDash unveiled Ask DoorDash, an AI chatbot within its app that can help users find restaurants and complete an order.
Meanwhile, restaurant brands including Little Caesars and Starbucks are experimenting with their own apps within ChatGPT, although actual ordering is not available yet.
As one of consumers’ main starting points for online shopping of all kinds, Google has staked its claim as a leader on agentic commerce, declaring in a January blog post that “a new era of agentic commerce is here.”
One of its first moves was the launch of a Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a “common language” for agentic commerce developed in partnership with major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Amazon. It’s designed to make transactions within Google Gemini and Google Maps secure and seamless, while positioning Google as a hub for agentic commerce. Functionally, it means that you can now buy stuff from Target and other stores directly within Google AI Mode and Gemini.
With the launch of restaurant ordering, Google is extending the UCP into the food world, with the help of Toast, Square, Uber Eats, and DoorDash, while leveraging Maps, a key restaurant discovery channel.
Now, why would DoorDash or Uber Eats agree to get invovled something like this, you might ask, given that Google ordering could divert customers from using their apps?
According to DoordDash CEO Xu, Google and other AI agents will be valuable “top-of-funnel” channels for driving business to DoorDash. But he is confident that many consumers will eventually opt to use DoorDash directly because it controls the entire experience, including, most importantly, the delivery itself.
“The end-to-end job at the end of the day I think is how customers will ultimately judge where they do their shopping,” he said back in February.
Regardless, Google’s return to ordering should be a good thing for restaurants, who once again get a large and powerful traffic source that requires little to no investment on their part.
It wasn’t clear whether restaurant ordering will eventually be possible on Google outside of Maps. The company had not responded to my question about that.
What is clear is that Google is once again making its case as a key player in the restaurant ordering field.
