Key Takeaways
- Google Maps updates to incorporate Gemini AI for more detailed location summaries. A game-changer for businesses and users alike.
- Photorealistic 3D Maps will offer a more immersive experience, especially for vacation planning and real estate tours.
- AI chatbot Gemini integration in Search function will optimize trip planning with faster search results and detailed information.
Many people rely on Google Maps to get around each day. It is one of the standard bearers for GPS software and its easy-to-use interface makes it ideal for Android and iPhones users. Over the years, it has received a lot of attention for its navigation, voice, ability to list points of interest, and customization. While it may not be everyone’s favorite, as others prefer apps like Waze and Apple Maps, it presents itself as a perfectly capable app to get you from point A to point B.
During Google’s annual I/O event, the company announced that there would be updates to Google Maps with a redesign that incorporates Gemini, Google’s generative AI chatbot. As I/O was mainly focused on Google’s AI advancements, it’s no surprise that Google Maps will be one of the main places that features updates to its search functions and capabilities. Some of them have already been incorporated while others are still to be released.
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Here’s the lowdown on what AI has currently implemented and what is still to come. There are plenty of new and exciting updates that will be released this year as Google Maps looks to continue to build its case as the best GPS app on the market. Here is what we’re interested in seeing and trying out soon.
Places API
Ideal for business owners
Places AI is a service offered by Google that “accepts HTTP requests for location data through a variety of methods. It returns formatted location data and imagery about establishments, geographic locations, or prominent points of interest,” according to Google’s Developers documentation. Now, Google has implemented Gemini into Places AI to come up with generative summaries for locations. These summaries can be used for restaurants, stores, tourist attractions, parks, recreational spots, and more. The summaries will make it easier for users of the app to know more about a business or place.
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It eliminates the need for business owners to write their own descriptions of their places. Places AI with Gemini will now include facts like what else is around the business, like shopping and restaurants, as well as how far in walking distance those places are. For example, a car garage can list where the closest EV charging ports are to their garage and a summer cafe can list how close it is to the nearest beach. This tool will also allow people to see photos and reviews immediately upon receiving the list of the search results, rather than needing to click into an individual place and scroll through the listing. It will show photos that users have uploaded or ones provided by the company to populate along with the result.
Photorealistic 3D Maps
Launching in the JavaScript API
Photorealistic 3D Maps is what you can typically see if you’re using Google Earth, and it is being brought to the forefront of Google Maps. and Google Street View. This is all built through the JavaScript API, which is how it is utilized in Immersive View, the navigational tool that lets users tilt, zoom in, and see a bird’s eye view of a location. But with the implementation of Photorealistic 3D Maps, users will get an even more immersive experiences for whatever their purposes are.
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Using 3D Maps might come in handy when booking vacations, ordering delivery or takeout, making a better version of a real estate tour to sell a home, or boosting a travel website with realistic maps of what is in the surrounding areas. The 3D aspects will allow users to utilize the technology to build out exactly how they want to see results and what they want to see. The 3D Maps will be faster than 2D maps that Google Maps has utilized for years and it will give a better and more realistic look at the world through the Google Maps app.
Have AI plan a trip for you
Use the search like you do Gemini
Google/ Pocket-lint
The AI chatbot Gemini can help answer questions for you and help you find specific items on the Internet that you want to search for. It will also summarize your searches, so you don’t have to read them completely, and present the information back to you in an easily digestible thread. Putting Gemini technology into the search function in Google Maps will help you plan trips in faster times. Gemini will not only utilize the Internet to search for a specific place you’re looking for, but also look through reviews that people have posted in Google Maps as well as photos to give you the best information possible.
The Search bar will turn into a Chatbot thread, allowing you to ask follow-up questions if you don’t see the results that you are looking for. It will work with both typed in questions as well as audio submissions, allowing you to talk to your device while you’re driving and get responses on how to adjust your trip.
Integrations with React applications
You use them everyday
Google also announced the release of its React Google Maps Library. While that may not mean a lot to non-developers, it will have a huge impact on the apps that you use all the time. React is a JavaScript library that will help in building user interfaces. Basically, that is what a lot of apps use to build the way the app looks and how users interact with it. React apps include Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, WhatsApp, Dropbox, and more.
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If Google Maps isn’t for you, the good news is there are several other navigation apps you can give a spin.
With the newest roll-out of features, it’s the first Google-sponsored library that is available to be integrated into React web apps. There will now be Maps JavaScript API components in React apps. This means that developers that created React apps, such as the apps above, can now include Maps in their platforms. Before long, we will be able to use Google Maps in other apps, which will make searching for places more efficient and convenient.