Google Maps gets numbers of buildings, crosswalks and many other functions

Google Maps is getting a ton of new features this week, so it’s time for a recap! The first feature is definitely one that no one asked for: the new “Community Feed”, which clearly tries to turn Google Maps into a social network. Google’s blog post says that “Every day, people submit more than 20 million contributions, including recommendations for their favorite places, business service updates, recent reviews and ratings, photos, answers to other people’s questions, directions updated and more. ” So now Google Maps is getting a News Feed full of all these reviews and updates.

Google’s sales pitch reads: “The feed shows you the latest reviews, photos, and posts added to Google Maps by local experts and people you follow, as well as food and beverage merchants, and articles from publishers like The Infatuation “. All of these updates are in the style of a social network, with the author at the top, a “follow” link for the author, and the ability to “like” posts. The only thing missing is the comments!

To show how serious this Google Maps social network business is, Google is putting the community feed front and center of the interface. When you open Google Maps, the community feed card pops up from the top of the screen, directly on the main Maps page. Just swipe up to read the latest updates. If you are not on the main Maps page, the community feed is under the “explore” tab, the first tab on the Google Maps tab bar. This also seems like a great place for announcements.

In addition to the people you actively follow, it appears that Google Maps will send updates from “local experts” to everyone, hopefully not abused. Google has to assume that, especially in the beginning, everyone is going to have zero followers, so you have to fill the feed with something. Google also says that it will try to find out your Google Maps interests and fill the feed with recommendations for similar places. Today these recommendations exist in the “updates” tab, which is still in the new Google images. It seems redundant.

Building numbers and crosswalks

For a less controversial addition, how about the number of buildings and crosswalks? Android Police has detected that even more details are added to certain cities on Google Maps. If you zoom in on places like New York, you will see striped crosswalk paint on some roads and small numbers of buildings that will let you know where the exact directions are. These go very well with Google Maps’ other recent detail addition: traffic lights.

Android Police say this was first detected in the beta version of Android’s Google Maps, which you can sign up for here. I also see it on Google Maps on the web.

The “Go” tab: Google Maps markers

More tab shenanigans: Google Maps’s “Toggle” tab (the second one) is becoming the “Go” tab, which sounds a lot more useful. Travel to work would only list the navigation options to your home and work, but the “Go” tab is more of a general bookmarks section. In addition to your home and work, you can also pin frequently visited places to the “Go” tab and navigate to them with one tap. It looks like this will show suggestions too, which are usually based on things like your travel and search history.

Google says your pinned destinations will display accurate ETA and live traffic information right from the Go tab, which sounds useful. You can also set public transport routes, which will show departure and arrival times, an updated ETA, and any service alerts.

Google says “The Go tab will start rolling out on Android and iOS in the coming weeks.” It is unknown if you will be able to access these bookmarks from the web. Google also said nothing about the social network on the web. Someone reminds Google that Google Maps has a website.

“Connected Photos” for Street View

Google’s ground-level Street View feature is getting another form of imagery that is easier to record without special equipment. “Connected Photos” is a new feature that more or less replicates the experience of walking down a street with a street view, but without the hassle of taking a 360-degree photo. Just fire up the new Street View app, walk (or drive) down the street, and some kind of image will be created.

The feature requires a phone that is compatible with ARCore, Google’s 3D sensing augmented reality framework. It seems that what is happening is that Google is recording a video with some 3D position data and as you go down the street the best frames will be saved and converted into a series of still images for Street View. These are not 360 images so you won’t be able to rotate the camera, but you will be able to press the forward and back buttons to virtually walk down the street.

When this feature was being tested, it used to be called “Driving Mode” for Street View. So I guess Google wanted you to put the phones in a car mount, fire up the app, and let it collect as much data as possible while driving. The blog post shows a photo from the middle of a five-lane highway, so it looks like turning yourself into a 120 degree Street View amateur car is something Google would like you to do.

Google’s blog post says “Before this feature, special 360-degree cameras would normally be needed to capture and post Street View images.” That’s … not accurate. Android has been able to capture Street View images for years, through the PhotoSphere feature that was released in 2012 in Android 4.2. PhotoSpheres uploads to Google Maps have been supported since 2013. PhotoSpheres are full 360 ° images, and taking them on a phone involves stitching together something like 15 photos. While the wizard guides you through the steps, it takes forever to create one, so Connected Photos is a simpler, higher-bandwidth way for your audience to contribute images. It looks like this is just an Android feature again, and you will need a new version of the Street View app, not Google Maps.