Google Maps
Google Maps is a free web mapping platform that helps searchers find directions to their chosen destinations and allows businesses to list their store locations.
This app is connected to Google Business Profile, allowing searchers to find even more business information on the Maps listing.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
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A New Easter Egg In Google Maps: Travel By Loch Ness Monster
There is a new easter egg on Google Maps, one that gives you travel and transit directions by Loch Ness Monster. If you get directions from Fort Augustus to Urquhart Castle when in Google Maps, Google will show the option of traveling via Loch Ness Monster. You can try it yourself by clicking here or […]
Google Maps Now Has Driving Directions In North Korea
North Korea Tech reports that Google Maps now has driving directions in North Korea. As the site reports, “North Korea has strict controls on internal movement, a scarcity of private car ownership and almost no internet users.” Despite all of that, Google Maps can give those who do have a car and internet access the […]
Founder: OpenStreetMap Already As Good Or Better Than Google Maps
Steve Coast founded OpenStreetMap (OSM) in the UK in 2004. It’s 10 years old this year. He was inspired by the Wikipedia model and compelled by a lack of available map and location data in the UK at that time. Coast now works for GPS navigation company Telenav, which owns location-based mobile ad network Thinknear. Not long ago […]
Google Maps For iOS Brings “Smoother” & “Faster” Street View Controls
Google has released a small update to their Google Maps App. The specific update to version 3.1.0 of this app reads: Smoother, faster transitions when you move through Street View Street View imagery is a huge part of directions and navigation for Google Maps users both on mobile devices and desktop. Previously, the street view […]
SearchCap: Google Maps Transit Expands, Yahoo & Ripoff Report & Search Impact Elections
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Study: Gender Bias In Digital Marketing Is Real WordStream, the paid search platform, published an eye-opening study this week on gender bias in the online marketing industry. Using its internal data, […]
Google Maps Adds Public Transit Directions For Great Britain, Vancouver, Chicago & More
Google announced they have expanded their transit directions to include coverage throughout Great Britain and also add bus lines to the Google Maps transit coverage in Vancouver and Chicago. Google Maps in the UK now supports over 17,000 routes with 2 million departure locations. This is also available on iOS and Android devices as well […]
Google’s Knowledge Graph Expands Into Google Maps
Google is expanding its Knowledge Graph into Google Maps. The company has confirmed to Search Engine Land that some locations in Google Maps will now get a new “Quick Facts” info card, and that the data are from Google’s Knowledge Graph. This new feature began appearing on Monday (May 12). The info card appears in […]
SearchCap: Local Search “On The Go,” Google Maps Upgrades, App Annie’s New Mobile Tools
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Re-imagining Google: America’s Favorite Homepage Gets A Redesign By Letter Society Blog Early last month, the design blog Letter Society posted a challenge asking its select group of designers to submit […]
Google Maps App Now Showing Uber Ride Options, Lane Navigation, Offline Maps
Google Maps is rolling out a number of new features for its iPhone and Android app today, including an integration with Uber, the transportation company that connects people in need of a ride with available drivers. According to the announcement, people who already have the Uber app downloaded will be able to compare Uber ride […]
Content Free: 25 Percent Of Google+ Reviews Are “Empty”
Investment firm Piper Jaffray has started tracking and comparing Google+ and Yelp reviews. For its inaugural report, the firm looked at a “snapshot of 950 places in 20 major cities” and compared review counts and depth across categories. The firm says it will continue to do so on a weekly basis going forward. Yelp holds […]
New Google Maps “Digital Timeline” Shows Street View Images Dating Back 7 Years
Google Maps has launched a cool new feature for its Street View images that lets you see past pictures of various landmarks dating back seven years. From the announcement, “If you see a clock icon in the upper left-hand portion of a Street View image, click on it and move the slider through time and […]
No Joke: Google Maps Brings Back “Search Nearby” Feature
You’re going to hear a lot of rejoicing when this news spreads: Google has returned the “search nearby” feature to Google Maps. #celebrate!!! Amidst all of today’s Google April Fools’ joke announcements, the company tweeted the feature’s resurrection earlier today. After doing a search on Google Maps, you can click again in the search box […]
Google’s April Fools’ Day Jokes For 2014: Google Maps Pokémon Challenge, Magic Hand & More
Is it just me, or does it seem like Google starts celebrating April Fools’ Day earlier and earlier every year? No company on the web takes April 1st more seriously than Google, as we’ve been covering for years now. So what about this year’s April Fools’ Day antics? Let’s have a look. Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge It […]
As Google Upgrades Google Maps Business Listings, Conflicts Happen Including Duplicate Listing Issues
Google has been automatically upgrading Google Place listings from the old system to the new Google Places dashboard. With this upgrade, there may be conflicts that prevents the upgrade from completing. The latest conflict is that there are duplicate listing issues and Google needs you to step in, fix the issue and then complete the […]
Google Yanks Fake FBI Listing From Google Maps, Puts New Blocks In Place To Stop Further Abuse
In response to a string of cases where fake business/organization listings have been added to Google Maps, Google says it has removed those listings and put in place new hurdles to make it more difficult for this kind of abuse to get through its system. This latest run of problems came to light about a […]
Google Brings Back Right-Click-For-Directions To Google Maps
Google Maps users can once again right-click anywhere on the new Maps to get quick directions to or from the spot that they’re clicking. They can also use the “What’s Here” option to quickly get the lat-long coordinates for any spot on the map. These are two of many features that users have asked Google […]
Google Says (Some) Missing Features Will Be Added To New Google Maps
Google took its new Maps site out of beta this week, but many users noticed that some of their favorite features from Classic Maps were missing. Not to worry, Google says. It’s aware of that and plans to bring at least some of those missing over to the new Maps site in the near future. […]
New Google Maps Comes Out Of Preview Today
Roughly last May at Google’s “I/O” developer conference, the company introduced an updated version of its desktop Maps experience. Since that time, it has been in “preview,” allowing users to go back and forth between the “classic” and new versions. Today, it’s coming out of preview and soon will be the default PC Google Maps […]
Google Requiring Some Business To Reverify Their Listings Or Be Removed From Google Maps
Some business owners are receiving emails from Google requiring them to reverify their listings within three-weeks or their listings will be removed from Google Maps and Google+ Local. The emails contain the subject, “Action Required: You have 3 weeks to save your Google Places Listing.” It is unclear how many businesses have received this notification […]
Telenav Thinks Scout Can Take On Google Maps
Last week Telenav acquired Skobbler for roughly $24 million in cash and stock. Skobbler is based in Berlin, Germany and is to OpenStreetMap (OSM) what Red Hat is to Linux according to Ryan Peterson of Telenav. For those not aware, OSM is the Wikipedia of digital mapping. It relies on a global force of over 1.5 […]
Google Maps App Now Continually Searching For Faster Route
Google quietly pushed out an update to the iOS version of the Google Maps app that now checks for faster routes to a destination as you drive. The new iOS version of the Google Maps app and the Android app will notify you if there’s a faster route available while you are in transit. Here […]
Google Apologizes For Berlin Street Being Renamed “Adolf Hitler Platz” On Google Maps
In a story reported by NBCNews.com’s World News, the popular Berlin square Theodor Heuss Platz was momentarily renamed “Adolf Hitler Platz” on Google Maps. Google apologized for the error in an email sent to NBC, stating, “We were made aware of a wrong and inappropriate Berlin street name on Google Maps and have corrected this […]
Google Maps Pegman Is Now Santa For Christmas
If you go to Google Maps and look at the Pegman used for browsing street view images, you will see the Pegman is wearing a Santa hat. The Santa Pegman is not new, it was shown to us when Google had a welcome back party for the Pegman in the new version of Google Maps. […]
Search In Pics: Google LEGO Menorahs, Penguins On Google Maps, Penn & Teller Through Google Glass
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
New Google Maps Adds More Search Results To Info Window
The (relatively) new Google Maps is certainly visually richer than the old Maps UI. However it may be somewhat less functional. As one example, it eliminates one of my favorite and most-used features: “search nearby.” It’s now also somewhat harder to access multiple results on a category query, ironically. Yesterday, Google Operating System spotted a […]
Google Maps Gets Street Views For 16 International Airports & Other Transit Locations Across The Globe
In time for the holiday travel season, Google Maps now includes street views for a number of transit locations across the globe. Yesterday, a post on the Google Maps blog claimed the site has added street views for 16 international airports, more than 50 train and subway stations, as well as a Hong Kong cable […]
Google Maps Makes Exception & Speeds Up Process To Replace Image Of Shooting Victim
Google Maps is making an exception to its process for reviewing image removal requests, and speeding up the actions needed to replace a satellite image of a 14-year old shooting victim. Following a story broadcast on KTVU-TV, a CNN affiliate in Oakland, California and a report on CNN.com, Google claims it will take approximately eight days […]
The Return Of Pegman And Other New Google Maps Features
The new full-screen Google Maps were announced this summer at Google’s developer conference. However, the company is still rolling it out to users. Today on the Google LatLong blog, a number of new (or returning) features were introduced. Among them, the “Pegman” Street View icon is back. He/it appears in the lower right corner of […]
Google Maps’ Mobile Reach Drops In September — comScore
Yesterday, comScore’s US smartphone market share figures for September came out. There weren’t many surprises — except for one thing: the Google Maps app has fallen three spots in comScore’s rankings. The smartphone app, which used to be the most popular in the US, fell from 5th to 8th position in comScore’s “Top 15 apps” […]
The Curious Case Of Bing Search Results In Google Search Results
Over the weekend, Bill Hartzer noticed that some Google searches returned Bing search results. As of last night, Google search results are once again Bing-free. What happened? Taking a closer look, the Bing search results weren’t www.bing.com/search URLs, which are correctly blocked by Bing’s robots.txt file. They were coming from www.bing.com/entities/search. This pattern is not […]
Homeward Bound: A Great Long-Form Ad For Google Maps
One of the most popular articles on the AdWeek site today showcases what is essentially an ad for Google Maps/Earth. It features an Indian man (Saroo Brierley) who as a young child falls asleep on a train with his brother. His brother doesn’t wake him up at their designated stop. When he later does wake […]
Google Now Cards Invade The New Google Maps
Google sure does love its new card-based information display. They’re the primary display for Google Now information. They’re part of Google’s new unified design on mobile devices. They’re how all information is displayed on Google Glass. They’ve been spotted in the wild displaying Google News results, too. And now they’re part of the new (still […]
Japan Tells Webmasters Not To Use Google Maps Over Disputed Territory
Fox News reports Japan has instructed their government authorities and state-run universities to not use Google Maps on their websites because of a conflict over disputed territories. The territory is Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. Apple Maps had a similar issue back in November of last year. The territory is based in […]
Google Maps Launches Ground Truth Initiative In Russia & Hong Kong
Google Maps announced new updates to their Russia and Hong Kong maps today, launching a “Ground Truth” initiative to build more thorough maps for Hong Kong and a number of Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. According to Google’s announcement: Ground Truth enables us to update a country’s map at a faster […]
New Local Ad View (And AdWords Click Type) Comes To Google Maps App
Google is following up on the recent roll-out of its updated Google Maps app for Android and iOS devices with a new local ad view and click type. The ads appear at the bottom of the screen. In addition to the standard title and ad text, the ads include the car icon link to get […]
Did Google Maps Lose England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland?
The United Kingdom (to use its short name) is a complicated country, actually made up of four countries across two islands. If you were looking to understand it better, forget Google Maps. That’s because the service has lost the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland — as well as the island of […]
New Google Maps App For iOS Includes Dedicated iPad Experience
Just a few hours after opening up the new Google Maps desktop version to anyone interested, Google has followed up by announcing new Google Maps apps for iOS. The big news is that, for the first time, there’s a dedicated iPad experience of Google Maps. Sure, you could use the previous Google Maps app on […]
New Google Maps Now Open To All, No Invite Needed
Google has opened up the new version of Google Maps to anyone who wants to give it a try — no invite is needed. The company shared the news via Twitter this afternoon. First announced at the Google I/O conference in May, the new Google Maps was initially available only to a select group of […]
New Google Maps App Gives Users More Search Functionality & Navigation Features
Google announced today the release of a new Google Maps app for Android devices, with iPhone and iPad versions soon to follow. According to the announcement, the new Google Maps app will include more search functionality and updated navigation features, as well as Zagat reviews and discount offers for specific destinations. Google has also created […]
Are Google’s Results Getting Too Ad-Heavy & Self-Promotional?
Are Google’s search results getting too ad-heavy and leading back to Google’s own content too much? A new blog post suggesting that Google’s non-paid listings make up only a tiny fraction of the entire search results page has sparked some discussion, though the exact percentage actually varies on how you count what’s on the page […]