#google-maps

#google-maps

For the first time since its introduction 11 years ago, Android Auto will fill the entire screen of the car, no matter the display's shape. The American tech giant showcased the new auto-adapting feature on a round Mini screen, the irregular display of a Lucid Air, and the BMW iX3's trapezoidal center touchscreen. On all of them, Google Maps was an edge-to-edge app, while the virtual buttons were constrained in a borderless rectangle.

Cookie banners have become bloated and useless, creating a new kind of interaction that means trouble all over the web. The only solution is to get rid of them, and do it now.

Ask Maps is a new feature in Google Maps that leverages Gemini to help users research local businesses, plan trips, get recommendations, and more.

Ask Maps works by allowing users to pose complex, contextual queries rather than searching for a specific place or category. 'Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?' is the example Google offers. The system draws on personalisation signals, including a user's saved places and past searches, to weight its answers, so a user who has previously sought out vegan restaurants will find vegan-friendly options surfaced without having to specify.

Immersive Navigation has a new 3D view that Google says will more accurately reflect what you'll see in real life. There's a Gemini tie-in here because Google can't develop anything new that doesn't at least touch on AI anymore. You'll see accurate overpasses, crosswalks, landmarks, and signage in the new navigation experience, which is all courtesy of Gemini models that glean data from Street View and aerial photography.

South Korea has resisted Google's appeals since 2011, arguing that the company's precise satellite maps could endanger national security by exposing sensitive military sites when combined with commercial imagery and online data. Given that South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea, the government is cautious about exposing such locations.

Photo: Courtesy of Tokuyamatcha Last week, we brought back "Cheap Eats," a list of singular, wonderful foods that all cost, even in this era of ballooning expenses, $17 or less. One of the goals, as we wrote, was to celebrate the work that goes into cooking food for all New Yorkers. Of course, we also wanted to give readers a list of amazing things to eat.

Pablo Sanchez, a manager of the moving company ServiMoving , noticed something strange online: a one-star review on their Google Maps page. We checked with the team to find out what had happened, which customer was unhappy, he explained to EL PAIS. A little while later, another one appeared, then another we started to get alarmed, he added. They quickly realized that the reviews weren't being written by real customers. We were baffled, he sighed. Shortly after, they found out what was really going on.

heard feedback that as our Q&A capability has grown over the years, it has become more difficult for customers to wade through all the questions and find timely answers to the specific question they have. Instead of scrolling through all of the existing FAQs or waiting for a response, customers can ask their question directly in Google Maps and get an updated, instant answer based on your answers and relevant reviews. Instead of answering dozens of specific questions from customers that may grow stale, you can answer aggregated questions from our customers, saving you time.

Google just rolled out a new Share option inside Google Maps... and yes, Reddit now has its own button and X is no longer there.

BrainsExciting news for skiers and snowboarders: your favorite lifts and trails at resorts are back on Google Maps. This feature was available until November 2024, and its return is a welcome update for the ski season. Users can once again access a scaled, accurate view of resort terrain worldwide. For riders who simply show up, strap in, and go, this may not seem like major news.

Maps will soon let you use a nickname and select an alternative profile picture for online reviews, so you can rate a business without linking it to full name and Google profile photo. Google says it will monitor for "suspicious and fake reviews," and every review is still associated with an account on Google's backend, which it believes will discourage bad actors.

Now, when users search for places in Maps like restaurants, hotels, or concert venues, they'll see a new "know before you go" tips section that will surface important information about the place. For instance, it might tell users the best way to book a reservation, what secret menu items are, what the best place to park is, and more. Users can click on each tip to get more information.

Say you're driving in the left lane of a US highway and your exit is up ahead on the right side. "With live lane guidance, just glance at your dash display to see exactly which lane you can be in at any given moment," Google says in a blog post. (Of course, you can also look at the road to figure out this information.)

It looks like you will activate the power saving mode by pressing your phone's power button. That sounds strange at first, but perhaps the idea here is that this would replace you turning the screen off entirely in order to save power? Anyway, once it's on, the interface becomes monochrome, and extremely minimalistic, as you can see in the screenshots below.

If you were driving around Toronto Saturday and checked Google Maps for the fastest route, you may have seen the Don Valley Parkway was closed. The only problem: it wasn't. Just before noon, the City of Toronto said in a post on X that staff had been getting reports that Google Maps was erroneously showing the east end highway was closed.

Earlier this year the Welsh village of Cyffylliog in Denbighshire was beset by an unexpected stream of traffic after an Aldi supermarket appeared on a map. The name of a farm just below the village, home to about 500 people, was changed on Google Maps to the name of the supermarket, leading to an influx of people attempting to do a weekly shop, and a milk tanker getting stuck. Google said it worked around the clock to identify suspicious behaviour, and corrected the listing.

Google Maps features a Live View augmented reality tool, aiding pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users by overlaying navigation directions on real-world environments.

OpenAI updated its ChatGPT iOS app, allowing users to select Google Maps as the maps provider for local results, replacing Apple Maps.

46% of all Google searches are local. 76% of "near me" searches lead to a store visit within 24 hours, making Google Maps essential for cannabis retail.