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Google on Thursday announced the rollout of its new Maps features, meant to make it easier for Indian users to discover local experiences, These include a redesigned, India-focussed Explore tab, a For You feature, and dining Offers
During the media event, Krish Vitaldevara, Director, Google Maps said, “We’ve heard that Indian Maps users prefer a more assistive and visual browsing experience that is easy to access. To reflect this, we have a redesigned, India-focussed Explore tab, the For You feature, and dining Offers. This will help Google Maps users discover a new side to their city, whether looking for things to do around town, getting offers on dining out, or getting recommendations that are personalised to their unique tastes.”
‘Explore Nearby’ feature
Many users will already have noticed the new features, prominently displayed under the map image and entitled ‘Explore nearby’. To minimise the need for typing, specially on the go, Google has tried to make the experience more accessible via single taps leading to suggestions on dining, events, and things to do in the area being viewed in Google Maps.
Within this section of the app seven new shortcuts have been added to the Explore tab: Restaurants, Petrol Pumps, ATMs, Offers, Shopping, Hotels, and Chemists. Using machine learning, Google Maps automatically identifies the top suggestions across these categories in every city. Users can now explore popular neighbourhoods in their city by simply tapping the arrow and also look upother Indian cities by searching by city name.
The ‘For You’ tab serves users information on new restaurants, trending places, and personalised recommendations tailored to their interests. This feature also uses the ‘Your Match’ score, which uses machine learning to combine what Google Maps know about millions of places with the information a user has added like restaurants rated, cuisines liked, and places visited. Resulted will get more personalised and relevant over time. Maps users can now also follow a business and get relevant updates, news on events and stay on top of offers they post to the ‘For You’ tab.
Offers
Google Maps’ ‘Offers’ section is where users can find deals and claim them at restaurants across the top 11 Indian cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. To use this feature, users can simply tap the ‘Offers’ shortcut in the Explore tab or filter for restaurants with offers. The Offer feature is being launched in partnership with EazyDiner, where users can now find offers from over 4,000 restaurants, with more categories and partners coming soon.
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