A new Google Maps update has revealed a cleaner design which emphasises places of interest, and adds a Wi-Fi only mode as well as crowdsourcing tools.
Waze might have the monopoly on Morgan Freeman’s voice, but some nifty new features in Google Maps might sate your appetite.
Earlier today, the Google Maps team took the wraps off a major redesign of the popular mapping service, which brings a simplified look with the goal of making it easier to find places of interest nearby.
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The update sees the removal of road outlines and revised typography; gone are heinous italicized names, and in their place stand beautiful bold text lines which are easier to read from a distance.
The team further included dedicated colour coding which reveals contextual ‘areas of interest’. For example, yellow hues represent manmade surroundings such as buildings, shades of blue represent water features, while green tones represent vegetation.
Google has stated that Maps will rely on algorithms to determine the colour shades of areas, but will make use of crowdsourced human editors to refine parts of mapped areas such as cities or suburban sprawls.
Users will be able to make use of contextual colour shades by zooming in on a particular area and discovering areas of interest nearby. For instance, zooming in on the iconic Company’s Garden in Cape Town’s city bowl would reveal not only the park but restaurants and hubs of activity nearby which travellers could use to plan their visit.
The update is presently rolling out across the web, Android, and iOS version of Google Maps and should become available shortly.
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What are your thoughts on Google Maps’ latest update? Will you use the service more often as a result? Be sure to let us know your opinion in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
