Uh-oh. Generative AI is coming to Google Maps. Google is using large-language models to give suggestions on where to go based on its vast horde of reviews, ratings and other contributor data. “Starting in the U.S., this early access experiment launches this week to select Local Guides, who are some of the most active and passionate members of the Maps community. Their insights and valuable feedback will help us shape this feature so we can bring it to everyone over time.” Other LLMs have a tendency to push out magnificently wrong answers; it’ll be interesting to see what results Google will get with this specific set of data. (The chances of spectacularity are not zero.)
Tag: Google Maps
Google Maps Updates Will Make It Impossible for Google to Respond to Geofence Warrants
Last week I mentioned forthcoming changes to how Google Maps stores users’ location data. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, those changes could spell the end of what are known as geofence warrants, which “require a provider—almost always Google—to search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all users or devices located within a geographic area during a time period specified by law enforcement.” The EFF believes geofence warrants are unconstitutional in the United States. Defaulting to on-device storage, deletion after three months, and encrypted cloud backups means Google can’t access that data: there’s nothing for them to turn over.
“All of this is fantastic news for users, and we are cautiously optimistic that this will effectively mean the end of geofence warrants,” says the EFF. “However, we are not yet prepared to declare total victory. Google’s collection of users’ location data isn’t limited to just the ‘Location History’ data searched in response to geofence warrants; Google collects additional location information as well. It remains to be seen whether law enforcement will find a way to access these other stores of location data on a mass basis in the future.”
Via Daring Fireball (where Gruber notes that Apple has never collected location data, i.e. there’s a reason it’s “almost always Google”).
Google Maps Updates Offer Users More Control Over Their Data
Forthcoming updates to Google Maps will give users a bit more control over their location data. Location History—off by default—will have the option of being stored on-device rather than on Google’s servers, and auto-delete will default to three months instead of 18. Meanwhile, users will be able to delete activity (“searches, directions, visits, and shares”) related to a specific location—the online maps equivalent of clearing your browser history, I guess. (I can’t help but notice that announcing greater user control over this information highlights the fact that this information is being collected in the first place.)
Google Maps Sends Drivers into Nevada Desert After Interstate Closure
Last month, after a dust storm shut down Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Barstow, Google Maps sent drivers off-roading, rerouting them via barely passable desert trails. Some were stuck for hours. Google has since apologized.
Jalopnik describes this as yet another case of blindly following, but I think this is a more specific failure mode. Rerouting due to road closures or traffic jams opens up routes that the algorithm would normally deprecate, and catches more drivers unprepared. It’s one thing when that means a quiet residential street gets an expressway’s worth of traffic, quite another when the second best choice is a dirt track—or a 500-mile detour. When the best answer the algorithm can give you is a bad one, it will still give you that answer.
Previously: Man Dies After Driving Across Collapsed Bridge, Family Sues Google; Google Rerouted Traffic Up Poorly Maintained Mountain Roads During a Blizzard; Google Maps Called Out for Showing ‘Potentially Fatal’ Mountain Routes.
Thoughts on Google Maps’ New Design From a Former Google Maps Designer
Among the recent updates to Google Maps is a new colour palette, which has been rolling out incrementally to users. Elizabeth Laraki, who worked on the design of Google Maps 15 years ago, has some thoughts.
It seems the goal was to improve usability and make the maps more readable. Admittedly, I do think major roads, traffic, and trails stand out more now. But the colors of water and parks/open spaces blend together. And to me, the palette feels colder and more computer generated. But color choices aside … If the goal was better usability, the team missed a big opportunity: Google Maps should have cleaned up the crud overlaying the map.
Man Dies After Driving Across Collapsed Bridge, Family Sues Google
The family of a man who died after driving off a collapsed bridge is suing Google; they allege that despite multiple reports from users, Google Maps continued to mark the bridge in North Carolina, which partially collapsed in 2013, as passable, directing him and other drivers across it. The family is also suing local companies for failing to maintain the bridge or put up barricades and hazard warnings.
Can Places on Google Maps Be Trusted?
Google has been plagued with fraudulent and scammy business listings on Google Maps for years (1, 2). Last April, Google posted about the steps it takes to combat fake content. James Killick points to more recent incidents and wonders whether places on Google Maps can still be trusted; given that he was able to add a fake listing and have it appear on the map within hours, signs point to no.
Updated Satellite Imagery of Ukraine Reveals Russian Fortifications, Damage
Recent satellite imagery reveals the extent of Russian defensive fortifications built in the past few months in occupied territory in anticipation of Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive: see coverage from CNN and Reuters. Meanwhile, Maps Mania reports that Google Maps’ updated satellite imagery of Ukraine shows the damage inflicted by the Russian invasion.
Google Maps as Social Space (and Time Waster)
Writing for The Atlantic, Will Peischel suggests an alternative to wasting all your time on social media: wasting all your time poking around in Google Maps.
Google Maps’ main purpose is to enable people to get directions and look up businesses. But along the way, it has become a social space too. Sort of. To fill out the world map it created, Google invited people to add snippets to all the digital places. You upload your photos; you leave your reviews; you look at the artifacts others have left behind. The pictures of a restaurant on Google Maps are often a mismatched succession of interior-design shots, flash photos of messy plates, and outdated menus. There’s plenty of detritus too: irrelevant photos, businesses that don’t exist, three-star reviews without an explanation.
The result is random and messy in a way that is different from the rest of the social web. […] But especially as algorithmic content has taken over the web, many of the surprises don’t feel fresh. They are our kind of surprises. Google Maps offers something many other platforms no longer can: a hodgepodge of truly unfamiliar stuff that hasn’t been packaged for your taste or mine. […] Because zooming out and scrolling around are so easy, you can bump into little treasures at every turn that would never land on an Instagram feed.
Google Maps to Upgrade Its Coverage of U.S. National Parks
Google Maps will be improving its coverage of U.S. national parks: an update later this month to both the Android and iOS versions will add park attractions, trail maps (and directions to the trailhead) and offline park maps. [Jalopnik/TechCrunch]
How Google Deals with Fake Content on Google Maps
In a blog post last Friday, Google offers some detail on how it combats fraudulent user-submitted content on Google Maps. These include fake business profiles, fake reviews, contributed photos with fake phone numbers—it’s basically about business listings. (There was a time, of course, when fake user-submitted content was to the map itself.) They report something like 115 million reviews, 200 million photos and 20 million fake business profiles—no wonder they’re using machine learning to deal with it all. (Compare with Google’s February 2021 post on the same subject: the numbers are up.)
Previously: Millions of Business Listings on Google Maps Are Fake: WSJ; How Many Fake Business Listings Are There on Google Maps?
Google Maps Updates (February 2023)
Updates to Google Maps announced earlier this month include a rollout of immersive view—first announced last year—in the previously announced cities of London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo (the rollout is delayed somewhat: it was promised for later this year last year), with more cities, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence and Venice, coming soon [Engadget]. Also announced: an expansion of the augmented-reality Live View feature (previously: 1, 2) to more cities and indoor venues [AppleInsider]; “glanceable directions” enabling navigation from the lock screen (“in the coming months”) [9to5Google]; and improved charging station search results for electric vehicles with built-in Google search [Jalopnik].
Previously: Immersive View and the Death of Consumer Maps.
Online Map Roundup for January 2023
Apple Maps
Apple Maps now provides parking information for 8,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
Apple also launched Business Connect, a tool for businesses to upload their information to be used by Apple’s various apps: not just Maps, though that’s obvious (and something Google has been offering for quite some time: see James’s post for context). More at Ars Technica.
Google Maps
The first cars to get Google’s enhanced maps (previously), which include things like traffic lights and stop signs, will be the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3, via Android Auto.
Meanwhile, turn-by-turn directions on Google’s Wear OS smart watch platform will no longer require a connected smartphone.
The Privacy Implications of a Slight URL Change
Garrit Franke thinks a change in Google Maps’s web address—it now redirects from a subdirectory, maps.google.com, to a folder on Google’s root directory, google.com/maps1—means that location permission given to Google Maps (a normal thing to do when using maps) could be applied across all of Google’s services without asking for additional permissions. [Daring Fireball/Lat × Long]
Immersive View and the Death of Consumer Maps
Pointing to Google Maps and Apple Maps, with their extensive street-level and flyover imagery, James Killick believes that maps for the consumer are moving away from symbolic representation and toward creating digital models of the real world that, he says, are not maps. “It’s all part of a trend, a downward trend in my opinion, that will result demise of consumer maps. Contrary to Beck’s approach to distill reality into its essential essence we’re moving in the opposite direction. [¶] We are instead on a path to the dreaded metaverse, a virtual world where we should all be thankful and glad to wander around as legless avatars with the aspirational goal of reaching social media nirvana. I don’t know about you, but, ugh.” [Lat × Long]