# Finding competitors: never your own company, one place to add them, calmer social icons

> Every way of finding competitors — during onboarding, from the empty page and from the "Add competitors" button — now runs the same verified search, so your own company and its group never appear on your own list.

Version: v1.589
Date: 2026-09-17
Source: https://doc.checkgrow.com/changelog/v1-589-finding-competitors-never-your-own-company-one-place-to-add-them-calmer-social-icons

## What this solves

A company that onboarded could find itself, or its national subsidiary, listed as a competitor, with every suggestion labelled "leader" and approved without review. Social icons flagged every missing profile with a red warning even where nothing was wrong, and an Instagram profile we had already found stayed hidden until its follower numbers arrived. Two separate buttons — one to add, one to search — did overlapping things, and the "Run scan" for website changes sat far from where the changes show up.

## What changed

- **One search everywhere.** Onboarding, the first "Find competitors" and later searches all use the same discovery: it names your company and its group as off-limits, verifies each website, labels every suggestion direct, indirect or leader with a reason, and hands the list to you for review before anything is tracked.
- **One "Add competitors" button** with two choices: search for competitors, or add one by hand.
- **Social profiles appear the moment they are found.** Follower counts and posts are fetched afterwards in the background; the profile link no longer waits for them.
- **No warning for a missing profile.** A profile we could not find shows a faint icon with a plus — "No Instagram found — add it" — and one we have not checked yet says so: "Not checked yet". Nothing red, nothing alarming.
- **"Run scan" lives in What changed**, next to the changes it produces.
- The hourly background search for missing profiles is running again.

## Where to find it

Open **Competitors**. The "Add competitors" button is at the top; suggestions arrive for review. "Run scan" is on the **What changed** tab.

## Useful for

Anyone setting up a new company, anyone whose competitor list has carried a wrong name, and anyone who wants the social icons to tell the truth at a glance.