Google Maps has become both a popular source for information and a popular source of complaint. Its street views maps, which change from time to time, had issues because they showed real people conducting the daily activities of their lives. My son enjoyed seeing himself playing basketball, but there were plenty of people that felt their privacy was invaded and/or were shown doing things that were illegal or that they did not want others knowing about. Today’s street view maps are sterile pictures of buildings and streets; they look like an abandoned world in science fiction. However, more people are happy now.
Looking toward the future, Google is rolling out the next change to their Google Maps slowly. While the goal of Google seems to be to collect all the data that there is in the world, Google Maps actually contain far more information than is seen on the maps the application produces for you and me. Google tracks the turning directions from each street, parking areas, walkways, closed streets, locations of business street signs and much more. What we see is just the tip of the iceberg, data wise. Now, Google Maps is creating maps just for you. Is this a good thing?
Google feels it may be putting out more information that customers want. For example, if you want to find your insurance office, all you may need is a guide that takes you directly there. Do you really need to see all the roads and byways that have nothing to do with getting to your destination? In many cases, probably not. This saves Google the trouble of having to put all of those characters on your screen. It gets a little tricky when you start looking at other things, however. If you are looking for a restaurant in a new area, what then? Well, it turns out that Google is storing where you travel using Google Maps. So, if you go out and always eat at the same place or type of restaurant, it will direct you there without giving you other choices. If you want more information, you will have to go back in and ask for it.
While there is something simple about asking for church, grocery store, etc without having to type in more specific details, perhaps this is too simple. Does this mean I will have to use a friends Google Map to get to places he goes and I don’t? What happens if I want to go to see a different football or sports team? Will Google Map still direct me to the Raiders stadium when I want to go to the 49er park? The biggest benefit I can see is advertisement for Google. Undoubtedly, business establishments will pay money to direct people to their locations. This happens now, when you look up any subject on Google. How do those listings get on the front page?
We will see how this plays out in the long run. It will be interesting to watch how this change is received by Google’s customers.