If maps were money then Google would be makin’ it rain this year at CES: Vegas Edition. Let’s recap: first they rolled out the Google Maps function to provide indoor floor plans for assorted airports and shopping centers. Then they customized Maps to display the convention center lay-out for CES ’12 so attendees can more easily locate booths. The combination of both of these was probably enough to help anyone in Las Vegas this week feel semi-competent with directions, but Google’s added one more function to their indoor maps for CES-goers that will make people feel like they’ve grown an extra tongue that can french kiss the future.
In a blog post this morning, Google announced that they’re including indoor maps of several Las Vegas hotels in order to help tourists in town for CES find their way through Sin City’s enormous hotels (although I’m sure you don’t have to be in town specifically for CES in order to benefit from these maps):
Today, we’ve expanded the list of places with indoor maps by partnering with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and others, to provide indoor maps for Caesars Palace, Bellagio, The Venetian, The Palazzo, MGM Grand and many more.
We hope that these indoor maps will come in handy when finding your way through the slots and to the shops. And for those of you who catch gadget-fever with CES in town, we’ve also partnered with a number of Best Buy stores in the Las Vegas area.
(Click here for a larger view of the image.)
Check out the maps in action in the video that Google provided to accompany the blog post:
So that’s that. Other than deploying Google babysitter drones that will cradle you in their huge metallic nanny arms and literally carry you from place to place, you really have no excuse to get lost this week while you’re in Vegas. Not now, not ever again. One question remains unanswered in Google’s blog post, though: since they’re trying to make the cultural experience of Las Vegas as agreeable and navigable as possible for tourists this week, when do we get to see an indoor map of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch up by Carson City. C’mon, Google – if there’s one place a person doesn’t wanna get lost in, it might be there.
Well. Maybe.