Google Maps, of course, is the most familiar technical term that has been an integral part of people’s lives around the world. On the 8th of February 2005, Google launched Maps as a result of its geo efforts to build a useful application to help the folks to get around. It was initially developed for desktop devices and later has gone mobile for the first time in November 2007 with Google Maps version 2.0 and was available for Blackberry and Palm devices. And in the years that followed, Google made it available for Android and iOS devices as well.
Today, Google Maps has over 1 billion active monthly users all over the world. Google is now celebrating seventeen amazing years of mapping the world. Google kept on adding many features to Google Maps since its birth, including the introduction of Google Earth, integrating Google Trip Planner, real-time traffic updates, taking to the street view, bringing turn-by-turn navigation into the app, helping business owners to showcase their presence, launching offline maps, adding wheelchair accessible routes, announcing the Live View using Augmented Reality, and so on. Google Maps has evolved to become a gateway for exploring the globe both digitally and in the real world on foot or by any mode of transport.
Google Maps has introduced 4 new features to enhance the local shopping experience of its users that can in turn generate more sales in businesses.
Come, let’s dive into these novel features that are now available in Google Maps worldwide.
Area Busyness
Using this new feature called Area Busyness, you can now see how busy the area is if you want to get in there. This can help those individuals who choose to avoid large crowds. Area Busyness integrates live busyness from individual institutions that are close to each other.
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To access Area business data, just tap on an area where you would like to go in the Google Maps and view how busy that area is at different times of the day. It will also show you how is the busyness of the area at the current time and also its estimates for the entire day.
Directory Tab
Google Maps is escalating its directory tab features on android and iOS for malls, airports, and transit stations.
Using the directory tab, you are now able to see the shops in a building and can easily locate car rentals, parking lots, airport lounges, and many other amenities.
For instance, if you are in a huge shopping mall, now it’s easy to find the list of stores and the floor to which each one belongs, they are open or not, and their star rating, using this new feature of the directory tab.
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More Helpful Information about Restaurants
When you search for any local restaurant, Google maps will fetch more helpful information for you from the review provided by other customers.
Customers can leave reviews and share the details regarding the price ranges of the restaurants, whether they offer outdoor seating, delivery, and other facilities. All these information and reviews provided by the customers will appear in the main listing of the restaurant.
Grocery Shopping
Google Maps has added a feature for the customers to order groceries for pickup. Users can utilize this feature to order groceries, as it is expanding the store locations.
Once you place the order, Google maps will track your order status and also let users communicate the estimated time of arrival with the retailer.
According to Google, users of this feature only need to wait for less than five minutes to get their order ready to pick up.
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Witnessing the journey of Google maps grow into what it is today has been an incredible experience for everyone. As the world is changing continuously, so is the way we transit in it. We are surer that Google maps will be there with our every step assisting with their new and featured tools to help us explore and navigate anywhere on the earth.
Contact us now to boost your sales via Google Maps!
