Google Maps’ new “community feed” looks like a social network for food

Google Maps is getting a lot of new features this week, so it’s time to take a look! The first feature is certainly the one that no one asked for: the new “Community Feed”, which clearly tries to turn Google Maps into a social network. The Google blog post states that “people submit more than 20 million contributions every day, including recommendations for their favorite places, business service updates, new reviews and ratings, photos, answers to other people’s questions, updated addresses, etc. ” So now Google Maps is getting a news feed with all of these notices and updates.

Google’s selling point 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 social media style, with the author at the top, a “follow” link for the author and the ability to “like” the posts. The only thing they lack are the comments!

To show how serious Google is about this Google Maps social media problem, it puts community feed at the center of the interface. When you open Google Maps, the community feed map appears from the top of the screen, right on the main Maps page. Just swipe over to read the latest updates. If you’re not on the main Maps page, the community feed can be found under the “Explore” tab, the first tab of the Google Maps tab bar. It also looks like a great place for advertisements.

Besides the people you actively follow, it looks like Google Maps is going to push “local experts” updates to everyone, which hopefully won’t be abused. Google has to assume that, especially at the beginning, everyone will have no subscribers, so you need to fill the feed with something. Google also says it will try to determine your interests on Google Maps and fill the feed with recommendations for similar places. Today, these recommendations exist in the “updates” tab, which is still in Google’s new images. It seems redundant.

Building numbers and crosswalks

For a less controversial addition, how about the construction of numbers and crosswalks? Android police spotted even more details added to some cities in Google Maps. If you zoom in all the way on places like New York City, you’ll see striped crosswalk paint on some roads and tiny building numbers letting you know where the exact addresses are. These go really well with Google Maps’ other recent addition: traffic lights.

Android Police says this was first spotted in the beta of Android Google Maps, which you can sign up for here. I also see it on Google Maps on the web.

The “Go” tab: Google Maps Favorites

No more tab shenanigans: Google Maps’ “Commute” tab (the second) changes to the “Go” tab, which looks a lot more useful. Trip only lists options for navigating to your home and work location, 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 access them with a single tap. It looks like it’ll show suggestions as well, which are usually based on things like your travel and search history.

Google says your pinned destinations will show live traffic information and accurate ETAs right from the Go tab, which seems handy. You can also pin transit routes, which will show departure and arrival times, an up-to-date estimated time of arrival, and any service alerts.

Google says: “The Go tab is starting to roll out to Android and iOS in the coming weeks.” It is not known whether you will be able to access these bookmarks from the web. Google hasn’t said anything about the web social network either. Someone reminds Google that Google Maps has a website.

“Connected Photos” for Street View

Google’s Street View feature offers another form of images that are easier to record without special equipment. “Connected Photos” is a new feature that more or less replicates the experience of walking on a street with a street view, but without having to take a 360-degree photo. You just need to launch the new Street View app, walk (or drive) on the street and some kind of images will be created.

The feature requires an ARCore compatible phone, Google’s 3D sensing augmented reality framework. It looks like what is happening is that Google is saving a video with 3D position data, and as you move around the street, the best footage will be saved and converted into a series of stills 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 front and back buttons to virtually walk down the street.

When this feature was being tested, it was called “Driving View” for Street View. So, I guess Google wanted you to put the phones in a car holder, turn on the app, and let it collect as much data as possible while driving. The blog post shows a photo of the middle of a five-lane freeway, so it looks like turning yourself into a 120-degree Street View hobby car is always something Google would love you to do.

The Google blog post states, “Prior to this feature, you would generally need special 360-degree cameras to capture and post Street View footage.” This is … not correct. Android has been able to capture Street View images for years, via the PhotoSphere feature launched in 2012 on Android 4.2. PhotoSpheres Google Maps downloads have been supported since 2013. PhotoSpheres are full 360 ° images, and taking them on a phone involves stitching together something like 15 photos. As the wizard walks you through the steps, it takes forever to create one, so Connected Photos is a simpler and broader way for audiences to post images. It looks like it’s still just an Android feature, and you’ll need a new version of the Street View app, not Google Maps.

List image by Google