Google Maps will Now Tell You How Busy a Place is in Real Time

BY

Published 22 Nov 2016

NSFW AI Why trust Greenbot

We maintain a strict editorial policy dedicated to factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content is written and edited by top industry professionals with first-hand experience. The content undergoes thorough review by experienced editors to guarantee and adherence to the highest standards of reporting and publishing.

Disclosure
So you want to head over to that trendy new taco store. But you’re not sure if the line will be around the street corner. Well, Maps now has the answer. A unique feature the company highlighted on its Keyword blog, it now estimates how busy or slow things are in real-time, thanks to Google’s data powers.

maps 1                                                                                                         Maps can estimate when a store is likely to be at peak busyness.
It’s unlikely that this will be available for every location on the planet. If you live in a large city where Maps has access to enough real-time information. Your mealtime decisions may get a whole lot easier. There’s also a spot for you to update the information if Maps doesn’t have it quite right. This feature lets you check in to find out how long people will typically stay at that venue.
Also, it adds extra detail for stores that might have separate hours for different departments. This way, you won’t show up when a store is open. Only to find the hardware section closed two hours ago.

maps 2
Some large stores have hours for different departments. They are listed inside of Maps.

All of the features are rolled to the Maps search. Which means they’ll be going live through a server-side switch. You probably won’t need to update your apps, though it can’t hurt to ensure you have the latest version of Maps search.

The impact on you: Maps is already the perfect companion for hitting the town. But these features come at the right time for the upcoming holiday season. If you like to dive into such products, it’ll be interesting to see just how accurate the data is. The question is whether it can tell you the current state of crowds while you’re out and about.