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Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

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Google has unveiled a set of innovative tools designed to revolutionize the way travelers plan and navigate their trips. The tech giant’s latest updates to Google Search and Maps promise to provide users with personalized and seamless travel experiences. One of the standout features introduced is the AI-powered trip itinerary creation tool within Google Search.

Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

Image Source: fastcompany.com

Users opting into this experimental feature can now prompt Google Search to generate detailed itineraries for specific destinations. These itineraries include flight and hotel options, along with recommendations for attractions and dining experiences. Leveraging a wealth of data from across the web, user reviews, and photos, Google’s AI algorithms curate personalized travel plans that cater to individual preferences.

Moreover, users can easily export these trip ideas to Gmail, Docs, or Maps, streamlining the planning process further. Although currently available only in English within the U.S., Google’s ongoing experiments with generative AI showcase its commitment to enhancing user experiences and shaping the future of travel planning.

Recommendations and Customizable Lists in Google Maps

In addition to AI-driven trip itineraries, Google Maps is receiving a significant upgrade aimed at enriching users’ exploration of destinations. The app now offers detailed recommendations from locals and trusted publishers like The Infatuation, presenting users with curated lists of trending, top-rated, and hidden gem restaurants.

Furthermore, a new AI-based feature within Google Maps provides users with key photos and summarized reviews of places, facilitating informed decision-making while exploring unfamiliar locations. Users can also organize their lists within the app, linking them to social media content for added context and sharing capabilities.

Threats and Opportunities in the Travel Tech Landscape

As Google continues to expand its suite of travel tools, industry analysts speculate on the implications for smaller companies and established players like Tripadvisor. With Google’s vast resources and cutting-edge AI technologies, competitors face the challenge of staying relevant and innovative in an increasingly AI-driven travel landscape.

Also Read: UK at Risk of Losing 8 Million Jobs to AI, Analysis Warns

The integration of translation capabilities into Google’s Circle to Search tool further enhances its utility for travelers navigating language barriers. This feature, set to roll out on select Android devices, exemplifies Google’s commitment to empowering users with seamless and inclusive travel experiences.

In conclusion, Google’s latest AI-powered travel tools represent a significant leap forward in redefining how travelers plan, explore, and experience the world. While posing challenges for competitors, these innovations offer unparalleled convenience and customization, setting a new standard for the future of travel tech.

How to Add Your Videos and Photos to Google Maps Places in 4 Easy Ways

How to Add Your Videos and Photos to Google Maps Places in 4 Easy Ways

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With the option to include photos and videos in place of textual recommendations, improving your Google Maps ratings has even more effect. This gives your opinion more prominence and offers helpful visual information about places. These are the best 4 methods for quickly and easily adding images or videos to any Google Maps location.

Through the Android Google Maps app

How to Add Your Videos and Photos to Google Maps Places in 4 Easy Ways
  • Open the Google Maps application on your Android gadget.
  • Look for the place you wish to add media to.
  • Slider will come up once you tap on the location.
  • After that, select “Post a photo update.”
  • Choose the preferred images or videos.
  • In the upper right corner of the screen, select the “Post” option.

Using Google Maps on a computer

  • Launch your browser, then go to https://www.google.com/maps.
  • Look for the place you want to improve.
  • After swiping down, select “Add a photo.”
  • Select an image from Google Photos or send one from your computer.
  • After selecting the desired image, click “Select.”

Using the Android Google Photos App

  • Open the Photos application on your Android mobile device.
  • Open the image you wish to connect to a certain place.
  • Press “Share.”
  • Click on “Add to Maps.”
  • In the upper part of the screen, tap “Select a place”.
  • Select “Somewhere else?” and type the name of the location.

Using the iPhone Google Maps App

  • Launch the iPhone app Google Maps.
  • Look for where you want to go.
  • Open the location’s page when it has been chosen.
  • After swiping down, select “Add a photo update.”
  • Choose a photo from the gallery on your iPhone.
  • In the upper right corner, click the “Post” button.

Also Read: How to Use a Laptop as a Second Monitor?

Conclusion

Recall that all of your contributions—including media and reviews—are linked to your profile and are available to everyone. Viewers of the Google Maps app may access profiles under the ‘Contributor’ section. Make sure your photographs are no more than 5MB, and your films should not exceed 75MB. This allows you to submit HD videos at a quality of 720p.

By using these easy steps, you can improve your ratings and provide useful visual material to Google Maps, which will improve the user experience for people all across the world.

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GOOGLE MAP LAUNCHES NEW SHORTCUTS FOR FINDING TAKEAWAYS

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The phase of quarantine is becoming very challenging with every passing day. But, the ones who are at home should consider themselves lucky because that’s all it takes to be safe. We should be grateful to all the police officers and medical professionals who are risking their lives to save the world. But, amongst all this chaos, our heart still longs for something extra. The memory of your last pizza bite might have just started fading. Yes, craving for good food has become a real struggle these days. But, at any cost, we shouldn’t step out of the house. Many online food delivery companies are primarily keeping their services close. Because let’s admit it the emergency services are what we need in this hour. But, it seems like Google has paid heed to the Monday blues or in this case quarantine blues. So, Google Map launched new shortcuts in its app to help people find takeouts from where food delivery service is available. Google’s new announcement has turned out to be a lifesaver for millions of people. Especially for those who weren’t able to come home due to the lockdown.

The
perfect timing

It will remain questionable if Google was already planning to release this new feature. But, even if it wasn’t, there could not be any perfect timing. People are locked up in their houses, especially the hostellers and young employees. No one but them used to be dependent on the service of online food delivery. So, they will be highly benefited by this. And, the common people would also like the taste of something different during this monotonous life.

What
is the new feature?

The
Indian government has done a very appreciable job by collaborating with Google.
This new feature has highlighted the shortcut button on the main user interface
of the app. Previously Google Map already had the feature of showing the
nearest restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, etc. But, the highlighted
option for takeout and delivery is what recently been added.

The
COVID-19 pandemic followed by the lockdown has pushed Google to do it. Because
when many people casually use the app, they may skip out this small button at
the corner. But, now it will be of utter advantage to the people of India. The
new feature will show all the takeouts near your location that can provide
delivery. Apart from India, this new feature is also available in the United
States and some other countries.

The
support from the Indian government 

This
new feature is not only for relishing good restaurant foods at home. It will
also help deliver food at your doorsteps during the time of emergency. The
Indian government in collaboration with Google India and Smart Cities has
decided to launch this new feature. In the beginning, 31 cities all over the
nation will get access to this feature.

The
Google Map app will show Public Food shelters and Public Night shelters. This
will improve the condition of feeding the nation’s people. The options of “Food
shelter near me” and “Night shelter around me” will pop up on the screen. From
here one can proceed to order food.

How
this will work? 

Well, you should know one thing that Google Map already had the option of takeaways. But, what is new is the highlighted shortcuts. Some people might have the confusion which Google has cleared. The process of ordering is pretty simple. You go to the app and select the area where you want to check the service of takeaway and delivery. It’s up to you which service you are going to take.

But,
it’s better to not step out of your house. So, delivery will be a safe option
for everyone. After the area is selected, the particular shortcut will display
the entire list of restaurants near the selected area. It will only show the
locations that can provide either takeouts or delivery. In the case of foreign
countries, clicking a particular restaurant can send you to the website of
GrubHub. From there you can order food and enjoy your meal.

But, in
India order can be directly accepted in most restaurants from Google Maps. The
shortcuts are made available on iOS, iPad, and Android.

Founders of Google Map, From Doodling on a White Board to Monitoring the Roads

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Before settling down in the technical sector of Google and long before founding ‘Where 2 Technologies’, all the four founders of Google Map, Noel Gordon, Stephen Ma and the Rasmussen brothers, Lars and Jens, had totally divergent lifestyles. Initially, they had no plans on starting something of their own, but they somehow ended up creating a Sydney-based digital mapping start-up, ‘Where 2 Technologies’, which came under the acquisition of Google after a year of its launch.

Noel Gordon, Stephen Ma, Lars Rasmussen and Jens Rasmussen are the founding members of Google Map. The story starts with the Rasmussen brothers, at the time, when they started from zero with a sky-high dream of becoming millionaires, later, joined by Gordon and Ma.

Before Founding Where 2 Technologies

Born in Denmark, Lars always wanted to become a veterinarian. But, his mindset was changed after a terrible incident happened when he was 13. The Rasmussen brothers started taking programming lessons after school. Lars graduated with a PhD in Theoretical Computing in 1998 and moved to the US in 2000. In the US, he worked for a company, prior to dot-com boom in Silicon Valley. Dot-com or Dot-com Bubble was a business model that was followed by many companies to expand rapidly and capture the market.

After the stock market crashed in the year 2000 (also known as the dot-com boom), the Rasmussen brothers went through a $45 million loss in start-up capital. Though it was a major loss, they didn’t consider giving up as an option. With no savings and a mere $16 in their pockets, they started thinking of building a start-up. After the dot-com bust, the two needed to come up with something very unique, and something which, people would be interested to invest in. They started to work with mapping and navigation systems, to create something unusual and to set their application apart from already existing mapping software. And that is how they developed the idea of Where 2 Technologies, one of the most widely used platforms for navigation.

Google Map
Image Source: medium.com

After six months of diligent hard work, they finally had a prototype to show and went to meet Frank Marshall, a private investor, to discuss fundings. Marshall was a very influential person, and it was him, who set all the meetings between Rasmussen brothers and high profile investors.

Where 2 Technologies really started taking shape after the other two founders joined Rasmussen brothers in the venture. Before joining Where 2 Technologies, Ma worked at a petrol station, and Gordon worked in his father-in-law’s clothing factory.

The Real Struggle

When the two bothers were still struggling with the idea of a new mapping system, Lars flew to Australia to live with his girlfriend. In Australia, Lars sought out Gordon and Stephen, when the brothers were already bankrupt. Then, with a little funding from Gordon, Where 2 Technologies was actually created and started shaping towards perfection. The team worked in the spare bedroom with conditions led by Gordon’s girlfriend. They didn’t work after 5, and also, spared the weekends. Gordon, in one of his interviews, said that they might be the only start-up in the entire world that worked from 9 to 5.

The next step was to get the right investors for the idea. They jot down the list of potential competitors, list of buyers, capital firms and technical strategies for Where 2 Technologies. By this time, they were already living lives with maxed out credit cards, but the zeal to achieve the goal was untamed. After showing a few prototypes to some of the huge investors, the real deal began when they had to represent the idea of advanced digital mapping to Google’s co-founder, Larry Page.

At first, Where 2 Technologies created an application for mapping which was supposed to be downloaded, installed, and then used for navigation. But Google wasn’t interested in application software, so it gave the team a deadline to get an idea for a web browser. Within a time span of only three weeks, they required to create a prototype, and that is how the scribbled whiteboard became famous. Finally, the team was able to successfully deliver it in August 2004. And with an unrevealed sum, Where 2 Technologies came under the acquisition of Google. This was Google’s second acquisition.

The Triumph

Even before the founders could embrace success, they found themselves working as Google employees. These Nooglers, that is, new recruits of Google started working at the Australian headquarters of the company. The company launched its IPO soon after they were recruited, where Google valued $23 billion. Among the four of them, Gordon still works at Google, and Ma retired a few years ago.

Google Map was founded on 8th February 2005, and by 2012, the company had over 2,100 employees working in the mapping sector.

The hard work of those four men paid off well because they were never ready to give up.

Google Maps now Shows Nearby Lime Scooter & Lets You Book One for Your Last-mile Trip

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The tech giant Google has been continuously working towards improving its services for its consumers. Similarly, for its most widely used GPS app, Google map, Google has been adding new features to it to make navigation simpler for its users.

google map-lime
Image Source: pcmag.com

Google has already added Uber to its Google Map app, from where the users can book cabs for them. Now on Thursday, Google announced that it is going to partner with Lime and will show the location of nearby Lime battery-powered scooters, on Google Map. Google is planning to do so, in order to shorten the commute times for its users, as they will be able to rent those ride from the app.

Google, in its blog, said that after getting out of a taxi or a subway, the 15 minutes walk can be reduced to a smaller ride with the help of those scooters. Google will now display the nearby Lime scooters on the Google Map app, as another transport option, and after the users tap on it, they will be redirected to the Lime app. If there is no lime app on their smartphones, they will be redirected to the Apple Store or Play Store, so that they can download the app. And then, the users can book those scooters and bikes, from the app.

For now, the service will be available only in thirteen cities worldwide, i.e., Auckland (NZ), Austin, Baltimore, Brisbane (AU), Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Antonio, San Jose, Scottsdale, and Seattle. And, after the successful testing of the services, Google is planning to expand it into other cities as well.

The app not only will show the distance of the vehicle form users’ location but also will display the total journey time, battery consumption, the total cost for the journey and the number of other Lime vehicles nearby.

Lime, in the time of its 14 months operation, has fulfilled almost 1.5 million bike and scooter rides and has raised $467 million in funding to date, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, being one of the biggest investors in it. The partnership between the two companies is not only beneficial for them business-wise, but will be a great contribution in reducing the congestion and carbon emissions.