Google launches Search Profiles for creators but eligibility requirements leave most locked out

Google has launched a feature that lets creators shape how they appear in search results – but only those with a sizeable following, raising questions about whether the eligibility requirements reflect how the creator economy actually works.

Search Profiles give creators a dedicated space to showcase their latest articles, videos and social posts, and allow audiences to follow them directly from search results. Profiles can be accessed via a creator's Knowledge Panel, through Google Discover, or via a direct URL.

Available in the US only for now, they function as a centralised profile that pulls together a creator's content across platforms and displays it to people searching for them on Google.

To qualify, creators must have at least 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram or X, or 300,000 on TikTok. Google has said it plans to expand the feature internationally and add further capabilities over time.

The thresholds have raised questions about who the feature is actually designed to serve. According to the American Influencer Council, fewer than one percent of the more than 39 million creators in the US have audiences exceeding 500,000 followers. The vast majority operate as nano, micro or mid-tier creators.

"Follower count does not measure creative performance, cultural influence, audience trust, or the ability to drive business outcomes," Qianna Smith Bruneteau, Founder and Executive Director of the American Influencer Council told The Daily Influence. 

"The creator economy is no longer concentrated among mega and celebrity creators. Relevance, expertise, and community trust are increasingly becoming the metrics that matter most."

Smith Bruneteau noted that micro- and nano-influencers are projected to account for 45.5% of US influencer marketing spending in 2026, with creators expected to earn more than $21 billion in revenue that year.

Creator discovery under scrutiny

The launch is the latest sign of Google investing more heavily in creator-facing search features. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to expand Project Oasis to include up to 1,000 news creators globally, in an effort to improve how credible independent creators are surfaced and ranked in search.

The feature also arrives amid growing regulatory scrutiny of how Google handles creator and publisher content. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority introduced a conduct requirement earlier this month giving publishers the ability to opt out of their content being used in AI search features, while separate work on creator control under the same regime remains ongoing.

At the European level, the Commission is continuing its investigation into whether Google uses YouTube creator content to train its AI models on unfair terms.