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Tag: indoors

  • Google Maps’ New App To Improve “You Are Here” Blue Dot To Indoor Maps

    When Google Maps for Android started providing indoor maps for facilities like malls and airports, it came equipped with the helpful “You Are Here” blue dot that indicated to, yes, indeed, you are in fact here. Google Maps has since decided that maybe they can improve upon that function, though, since the indoors can be a hairy place to navigate and have launched a new developer app called Google Maps Floor Plan Marker.

    Essentially, if your facility is one of the places that’s uploaded an indoor map to Google Maps, the Google Maps Floor Plan Marker is a tool you can use to give Google Maps feedback about the insides of your facility that will ultimately help visitors find their way around a little better. The Lat Long Blog’s announcement explains:

    If you’ve uploaded a floor plan through the Google Maps Floor Plans tool, once you install the Google Maps Floor Plan Marker app, you’ll be guided through the process of walking around the entire surface area of your place of interest. Using the app, you collect data from sources such as GPS, cell tower, and publicly broadcast WiFi information that can help us make the My Location feature’s familiar “blue dot” icon accessible for Android users when they’re inside the venue. The time it takes to complete this process depends on the size of the venue, but you can pause and resume a marking task at any time if you want to take breaks.

    Realistically, some poor secretary or intern is more than likely going to be the one assigned to canvasing literally the entire walking area of the building(s), but at least getting up and walking for a few hours may help pass the workday a little quicker.

    In case you’re somehow unfamiliar with how Google Maps for the indoor environs works, here’s Google’s video that explains it:

  • CES 2012: Google Maps Indoors Of Las Vegas Hotels

    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.

  • Google Maps Indoors Of CES 2012, Makes Sure You Cannot Get Lost

    Google Maps Indoors Of CES 2012, Makes Sure You Cannot Get Lost

    It’s official: you cannot get lost anymore. Even if you throw yourself into the tidal foot traffic of a convention such as CES this week, where you should be easily swept away by the frenzied tech fiends, you cannot get lost. Well, not unless you try.

    What makes it so difficult to lose your way this year at the tech convention is Google Maps’ offering of the floor plan for CES 2012 as part of their recently announced effort to include maps of indoor places as well as outdoor places. Not only will you easily navigate your way through the airports of Las Vegas as you arrive for CES, but now you will deftly maneuver your way through the labyrinthine arrangement of nearly every exhibit at the convention. Android Police offered up this example of the nifty map:

    As with any of the Google Maps you summon, you can zoom in or out to pinpoint more detailed locations at CES. Furthermore, you can even get directions to a certain booth you’d like to visit by punching in the destination of interest. This Maps function will be an invaluable given the convention is happening in Sin City. However, it’d have been really nice of Google to include a function that helps you locate the lost member of your squad once you get blackout hammered after an exciting day of galavanting among all the shiny new technology.

  • Google Maps Now Identifies Stores Located In Malls, Office Buildings

    Google is really taking the fun out of getting lost these days. If you don’t like getting lost, then consider this a good thing for you.

    Following their recent decision to include maps of indoor facilities in their Maps app, Google announced today that it will now Google+LatLong%29″>provide the overarching locations of a certain destination so you’ll know ahead of time if the place you’re traveling to isn’t a stand-alone store. For example, let’s say you’re searching for a cute Donald Duck hat for your nephew this Christmas and want to check out the nearby Disney Store. You search for the Disney Store in your city and will see a more detailed result like this:

    You’ll notice that you now see the name of the actual buildings – in this case, the malls’ names – that the nearby Disney Stores are located. This should save you some nervous rubber-necking for the physical address on buildings as you’re cruising along to your destination. If you’re curious about what other treasures of commerce might be located in the mall of your Disney Store choice, you can click on the name of the mall to bring up a list of other stores within the same location.

    Although the new feature is live today, it doesn’t include all locations in the U.S. (no mention is made about anywhere outside of the U.S. yet). With the Christmas shopping season about to hit critical levels of crazy in the coming weeks, hopefully this new option will alleviate any undue stress for you last-minute shoppers. But even if you don’t need this accessory immediately, the function is a permanent addition to the Maps app so you may find it helpful for easily finding places located in office buildings or airport terminals.

  • Google Maps The Indoors

    Remember paper maps? The kind that required olympic dexterity to hold and read competently and that never folded up as neatly as it was when it was brand new? Better yet, do you remember the last time you even used a paper map?

    Good luck plumbing your memory to recall that moment, and thank Google while you’re at it. Ever since smartphones became the ubiquitous device velcroed to the hands of millions of people, Google threw the public a bone by providing smartphone users a mobile app with easy access to maps for virtually any place on Earth. They even gave us maps of the ocean floor. This new mastery over navigation worked like a sixth sense and made us feel like new Magellans.

    Well, until you went inside.

    Once you’re indoors, it’s back to the frustrating days of pouring over free-standing maps to find the “You Are Here!” icon or, at the risk of validating your cluelessness, asking someone for directions.

    Finally recognizing that people are just as likely to get lost indoors as they are outdoors (if not moreso), Google’s finally lending a hand to smartphone users. A new blog post today from Google reveals that their Maps app will begin providing floor plans for some of civilization’s frequented yet most vexing indoor labyrinths (think airports or malls).

    Google released two videos with the post demonstrating how the indoor maps work:

    The blogpost also explains that Google will constantly update the indoor maps insofar as that information is made available as well as an invitation for businesses to submit floor plans so they can be included with this function. A detailed list of current locations currently supported by the app is also available. It’s worth mentioning that this feature is only available on Android devices (as of today, at least).

    So far, the response from the Twitterscape appears to be positive:

    @stevebuttry
    Steve Buttry    Will definitely use this in airports. RT @dannysullivan: Google Maps. Now for indoors: http://t.co/EeM20MLE 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @LBiLondon
    LBi London    Definitely going to be handy! Google Maps goes indoors in US and Japan. http://t.co/It5YSVXY 2 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @stephanieschopp
    stephanie schopp    Google Maps: one step closer to helping me find my keys http://t.co/TR0n2wXD 2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    Now finding those Swedish meatballs has never been easier.