Searching, especially on mobile, is increasingly based on your location. For Google Search and Maps, specific service is determined by the country you’re in. However, in a change today, country-specific services no longer require that users visit a regional version of Google.
Google Maps is the best tool for navigation — there’s just no argument there. Thus, it should come as no surprise that drivers who work for services such as Lyft prefer to use Google’s service to get their passenger(s) to their destination. Now, Lyft is making that a lot easier by integrating its driver application with Maps.
In recent months, the Google Maps interface on mobile has seen a number of changes, in particular a new bottom bar for directions and finding interesting places around you. The latest change adds a third FAB to the app’s main screen for switching between map layers.
Maps is one of Google’s many services that seems to get new little updates all the time. Users have been able to add photos of locations on Maps for a while now, but Google is now taking things to the next level by allowing for videos to be uploaded as well.
Approximately two weeks after Hurricane Harvey, another major storm is expected to make landfall this weekend in Florida. Following relief efforts in Texas, Google Maps will be marking closed roads in real-time to help with evacuation efforts.
Google Maps might seem like a basic turn-by-turn navigation system to some people, but as we know, the service goes much deeper than that. One of Maps’ best features is providing quick and accurate info on businesses/institutions in your area, and now, Google is making a push for getting more wheelchair accessibility information added to these establishments all across the world.
Google revealed today that the Street View cameras that sit atop the roofs of vehicles that roam and catalogue the world have received a quality bump. While this results in higher resolution images, it also means better data for its image recognition systems.
A host of new features were discovered in a recent teardown of version 9.60 of Google Maps — including picture-in-picture for navigation, the ability for local guides to publish videos, food reviews, and more. Picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality is currently only been available after first entering a key code, but it looks like the full public rollout is coming soon.
Between turn-by-turn navigation, being able to see how busy a business is at any given time, the ability to easily hunt down gas stations, and plenty more, Google Maps is a true powerhouse when it comes to maps/navigation. In the most recent update to the service, Google has announced that Maps will now make it easier than ever to find a place to park your car when you’re out and about.
Earlier this month, Google quietly added support for picture-in-picture on Google Maps, at least in a beta version of the app. In the time since, Oreo has officially started rolling out and now, the app’s new functionality has finally been pushed to the stable version.
Over the years, Google has added a number of features based on crowdsourced data to improve local discovery in Maps and Search. The latest effort involves adding a question and answer section directly to listings in Maps and mobile Search.
Update: It turns out Android Police spotted this feature back in July, so it’s not as new as we thought.
Following a couple of in-the-works features we discovered in the Google Phone and Contacts app yesterday, our latest finding has to do with Google Maps. This recently-uncovered change in Maps is far from ground-breaking, but it’s a nice visual revamp that adds to the overall aesthetic of the app.
Google Maps is probably one of the most used applications on your smartphone, and Google is constantly testing new ways to make it more and more useful. In the latest beta update for Maps for Android, Google has added several new features, including a picture-in-picture window for Android O users.
Google’s Street View cars are pretty well known and iconic for their role in developing Google Maps, and quite a lot of those cars are based off of the Subaru Impreza. Now, a model car fan has developed a scale model of Google’s vehicle, with a fun little twist.
Google Maps can pick up some interesting things between satellite and street view imagery, and we also know that Google does a bit of its own cleanup on it to provide the most clear views possible and make sure things like the faces and other private information isn’t made available to the world.
It’s definitely not the first cool thing that someone has found in Earth imagery, but the latest gold nugget is a shot of what appears to be a British airliner in mid-flight…
As past events throughout time have proven, the world can sometimes be a dark and dangerous place. Having access to the right information during a crisis can prove to be lifesaving depending on the situation at hand, and the release of SOS Alerts on Google Search and Maps aims to make dealing with these future events easier and much more manageable.
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Google has been working hard to capture remote landscapes that most people won’t ever be able to see in person, including a volcano. Street View’s latest adventure takes the viewer off of planet Earth and into the International Space Station (ISS)…
Google Maps is capable of some seriously impressive things, and that’s highlighted by its ability to show you how busy a business is at any given time. Now, Google is expanding on that feature by showing how busy the traffic is along your route by the time of day.
At the end of 2016, Google began to roll out a new feature that allowed people to reserve their spot in fitness and wellness classes straight from a business listing within Search and Maps. Starting today, Google has expanded this feature to also include spas and salons so that you can quickly and easily schedule your haircut or mani-pedi without having to call the shop or deal with a confusing online interface…
Google Maps is taking advantage of its large crowdsourcing aspect to make it easier to both input and find details about the accessibility of a location. In addition to this information appearing in Maps, it will also appear in Search result cards.
Google today announced an update to its Local Guides program — perhaps the biggest one in a while. Starting today, Local Guides can reach up to level 10, whereas previously the “game” was capped at level 5. That means those who previously maxed out their points have reason to start updating Google Maps data again…
This year, as a way to celebrate Pride and to help people navigate to events and parades, Google Maps will be displaying different Pride festivities happening in 35 cities around the world…
One of the benefits of using Google Maps is being able to easily navigate cities that might be unfamiliar. For the most part, though, Maps and other GPS technologies only help you navigate public and some private streets and roads, but becomes useless when you enter a building. However, slowly but surely, Google Maps has been adding internal specs for public buildings, and now it appears to be adding the layouts of major subway stations.
Navigating an unfamiliar city can be difficult, and it can be easy miss a turn even when using apps like Google Maps. An update rolling out today to Google Maps is making it even easier to arrive smoothly at your destination by allowing users to see exactly where to turn and what lane to be in using Street View images…
