Google Maps is the gold standard
as far as maps are concerned. Wherever you want to go, in any part of the
world, Google Maps guides you through accurately and, in some cases, even
beyond your imagination.
On its 15th birthday,
Google has announced further updates to this winner App. Here are some of the
updates it has announced. If you do not see some of them in your Google Maps
app, please be patient – they will be selectively rolled out when you refresh
the App from the Play Store within the next few weeks (plans are afoot to roll out in March, 2020), depending upon where you reside.
Google Maps thrives on the data
that it collects through crowd-sourcing, i.e., each of us who has Google Maps
installed, is directly or indirectly supplying data to the Google Maps central
server, to enhance the user experience for the entire population; for example,
when you look for the time estimate to reach a particular destination in real
time, Google has already collected data from thousands of commuters who are
already on that route, or have recently completed their journey. This data is
aggregated and then served to you as an estimate of how much time you will take
to reach your destination. And we all know how accurate that is. The updates
that Google Maps proposes to take this crowd-sourcing of data to the next
level. Let us see what the actual updates are going to be like:
Currently, there are three tabs
at the bottom of the App – Explore, Commute and For You. These
are now transformed into five tabs – Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute
and Updates. Let us see what they represent and how they are different
from the existing tabs.
EXPLORE
AND COMMUTE
These remain largely unchanged.
Explore
allows you to explore places around you, at the current location. If you are
looking for a place to have lunch, go for a movie or to play games, Explore
will help you find the best place close by. Ratings, reviews and pictures of
more than 200 million places around the world are available, including nearby
attractions and city landmarks.
Commute
checks traffic around you and gives you the estimated time to reach your
favourite destination. If you are at work, it will show you the Commute
time to your home and vice versa. This happens in real time. There is also a
‘crowded-ness’ feature which tells you how crowded public transport is likely
to be at a particular time of the day.
Saved –
this new tab helps you locate your saved places instantly. Users have Saved
more than 6.5 billion places on their individual apps. This tab will help in
planning trips and making travel plans. It will also recommend places based on
the user’s map history.
Contribute: Here, again,
Google is looking at making crowd-sourcing more direct and interactive. You can
share information about a local area, traffic jam, diversions, reviews (for
hotels and businesses), photos, addresses, etc. You can add missing places,
too, and enrich the content of the maps. All your contributions would then be
pooled for the benefit of the entire user community. This could make sites and
apps like Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc. redundant.
Updates will
present to the user the latest trending and must-visit places near him / her.
The latest real-time Updates will always be available so that you do not
miss out on any of the new, popular places. In addition to discovering, saving
and sharing recommendations with your friends and family, you can also directly
chat with businesses and get more information about them.
To help you plan your journey,
Google has also added some cool new features such as:
Temperature –
you can check the current temperature at the destination before you start;
Women’s section –
this will help in commuting in areas where there are special sections for women
in the transportation system. For instance, it will indicate trains which have
women’s compartments, women’s specials, etc.;
Security –
this feature will guide you about security cameras, helpline numbers and
security guards available in a particular area;
Accessibility –
differently-abled people can find accessibility option also listed on the
places they plan to visit, such as special ramps, seating arrangements,
accessibility in public transport, etc.;
Live View – is a built-in feature, which
helps people to quickly decide which way to go, when they start walking with
Google Maps on. By combining StreetView’s real-world imagery, machine learning
and smartphone sensors, it can show you the way, using augmented reality.
Some of the above features are
available only in certain countries, depending on the information available in
the public domain or supplied by the users in their reviews.
In India, Google Maps now
provides information about public toilets around a particular location. The
company is also looking to introduce a mixed-mode commute feature across cities
in India that will show multiple public transportation modes available for
commuting to a specific destination.
Meanwhile, Alphabet and Google
CEO Sundar Pichai has sent his wishes through social media.
‘Happy 15th Birthday @GoogleMaps! Reflecting today on some of
the ways it’s been helpful to me, from getting around more easily to finding a
good veggie burrito wherever I am:) Thanks to the support of our users, Maps
keeps getting more helpful every day,’ Pichai tweeted.
