Articles about Google Maps

Time your departure time wrong, and even the simplest of journeys can end up taking far longer than it was meant to. Hit traffic, and your journey time could be doubled -- or worse. A new feature of Google Maps aims to eliminate this problem.

The nameless feature is rolling out to the Google Maps mobile app, and it lets you know how long your trip will take if you leave now, or in a few hours' time. It's a simple addition -- and one that would benefit from a little more work and refinement -- but it's a valuable one for travelers.

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Google is making an important change to Google Maps that will help to make life a little easier for wheelchair users and people with other accessibility needs. Last year the company added accessibility information to locations on Maps, but now it is taking things a step further.

Recognizing that it will take a long time to wait for individual establishments to supply information about whether they have wheelchair access -- and even longer for Google to manually check things -- the power of crowdsourcing is being embraced. It's now easier than ever to add accessibility information about places to Google Maps.

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June is Pride month, and two of the biggest names in tech are getting involved in the celebrations. Google and Facebook are both showing their support for LGBTQ communities around the world.

Facebook has introduced a new, temporary, "reaction" in the form of a rainbow flag, while Google Maps is highlighting Pride events in cities around the world -- so you can either navigate to them to take part, or avoid the crowds if you're heading elsewhere.

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Forgetting where you parked your vehicle can happen to anybody at any age. It happens to me quite often, as I am known to be daydreaming as I walk from my car to a store, such as the mall. On more than one occasion, I've walked around a parking lot, hitting the "panic" button on my keys so that I can hear the horn honk. Heck, there is an entire episode of Seinfeld that deals with the topic.

Thankfully, Google is giving us some relief. The search giant's Maps app has a new feature that will record where you parked your vehicle. It is not an Android-only affair either, as it also works on iOS.

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Thanks to the internet, consumers are less likely to visit a gross restaurant or other bad location. You see, by reading online reviews, they can avoid these negative experiences. This is particularly helpful when travelling to a new city, as you may be unfamiliar with the area.

Unfortunately, when visiting somewhere that speaks a language that you do not understand, these reviews are useless on their own. To read them, you have to copy and paste them into a translation service, which can be an inconvenient chore. Thankfully, Google has come up with a solution for this dilemma. Starting today, the search giant will automatically translate local reviews into your language when you use its Maps or Search services. How cool is that?

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We live in a dichotomous age in which we are more concerned about privacy than ever, while simultaneously handing over more and more personal information to the likes of Facebook and Google. With its Your Timeline feature, Google Maps provides us with a great way to keep track of the places we've visited, but it also means sharing a lot of very revealing data with Google.

You may well like the idea of being able to check to see which coffee shop you visited a year ago, or check how far you walked last Wednesday, but you may also like the idea of maintaining some grasp of your privacy. Here's how to disable Your Timeline in Google Maps and how to delete any records that have been saved already.

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It's something that Android users have been able to do for a little while now -- using the Timeline function of Google Maps to check back over their travel history. Now the feature is coming to iOS, meaning iPhone users can now look back over their day and where it has taken them.

Google suggests that it's a great way to rediscover places you have visited in the past, but it also provides a means of tracking how far you have traveled over the course of the day. Users are given a good level of control over what's included in their timeline, allowing for complete personalization.

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When it comes to Google, many people are concerned about privacy, and rightfully so. Look, the company makes money through advertising and data collection. In other words, if you rely on the search giant's services, such as Gmail and Maps, the company probably knows a lot about you -- including the locations that you visit.

While exposing your location is normally something people try to avoid from a security perspective, today, Google is making it easier to do so. No, the search giant isn't doing it without your permission -- it is actually a very cool new feature. The company is enabling Google Maps users to share their real-time location with others. The reason that this is cool (and not scary) is that the user can choose with whom they share the location, and for how long it is shared. Your phone will even keep you notified that you are sharing your location -- just in case your plans change and you forget to shut it off. In other words, it is totally optional.

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The days of dedicated satnavs are surely numbered, with the likes of Waze and Google Maps bringing turn-by-turn directions to smartphone owners for free. The feature set for these apps just keeps on growing, and Google Maps now includes a new Lists feature which lets you use the app to create and share lists of places.

There are lots of possible uses for Lists -- Google suggests using it to create your bucket list of places to visit, but it's better used to draw up a list of places to visit on vacation, say, and then share it with friends who are planning a similar trip. While lists can only be created in the iOS and Android app, they can also be viewed on the desktop.

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When it comes to mobile operating systems, apps still reign supreme. To highlight which ones were most popular in 2016, Nielsen conducted a study of Android and iPhone smartphone users.

Not surprisingly, two major players in the mobile space -- Facebook and Google -- lead the pack.

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Black Friday can be a great way to bag yourself a bargain, but it can also be a nightmare in terms of stress. If you're looking to save a few bucks in the run-up to Christmas but want to avoid the Black Friday crowds, Google could just be able to help.

Google Search and Google Maps now not only show you the times of day that a particular store, bar or other location tends to be busy, there's now also real-time updates about just how busy places are. Armed with this information you can time your shopping trips more effectively. But Google has more to offer to ease the pain of Black Friday shopping trips.

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Google has announced that Map Maker -- the tool which can be used to make and suggest changes to Google Maps -- is to close down.

The closure is scheduled for March 2017, and Google says that the editing features will be gradually integrated into Google Maps itself as part of a streamlining process. It's not clear just how long it will take for all of the editing features to roll out to Google Maps, but some features will be missing for a while, if not permanently.

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Many years ago, I whiled away a long wait at a tiny airport by playing Snake on my Nokia phone. I literally did nothing for hours, except guide an ever-growing line around a small screen. These days, thankfully, there are much more entertaining diversions to be had on your phone.

Free airport Wi-Fi has been a godsend for many a traveler over the years, but it’s not without its problems -- you might need a password, and there could be restrictions in place to be aware of.

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Of the multitude of properties Googles owns, Maps and Calendar are two of the more popular ones. Both products can easily be associated with one another in the case of business travelers, so why not bring them together?

That's exactly what Google is doing, making your Calendar appointments available to see while using Maps. This isn't just driving either, it will work just as well if you are taking public transportation.

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Google Maps on an Android phone is a great way to get from A to B without getting lost, but if you need to check details of your route or want to make a change to settings, you'll need to pull over to do so. Or at least that used to be the case. Google has just added a load of voice commands to the app.

Of course, having to pull over is an inconvenience, and trying to fiddle with your phone while driving is dangerous. With this in mind, the addition of a series of voice commands triggered by saying 'OK Google', is not entirely surprising, but it is also very welcome.

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