Google Maps Adds Real-Time Traffic Alerts

Google has added Waze alerts to its Google Maps service, following its $1.3 billion acquisition in June.
Waze, which apparently was eyed up by Apple and Facebook ahead of Google's buyout, is a crowdsourced mapping service that allows its users to rework maps and to add real-time traffic alerts.

Now the firm is owned by Google and its alerts service unsurprisingly is coming to Google Maps, with users of the service now benefiting from real-time incident reports from Waze users, such as accidents, road closures, and speed camera alerts. This is a pretty big deal for Google, as Waze boasts that its users report millions of accidents and closures each month.

Google wrote:

No one likes getting stuck in traffic. That's why the Waze and Google Maps teams are working together to harness the power of Google technology and the passion of the Waze community to make it easier to navigate your daily life.

Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users. This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, the updates will also appear on the Google Maps app for Android and iOS.

This feature will be available via the Traffic tab on Google Maps for iOS and Android, and Google said it's rolling out to users in the U.S., UK, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Switzerland.

As well as adding incident reports to its service, Google has given something back to Waze. The Waze app for iOS and Android will be getting Google Search, Street View, and satellite images, making it easier for users to find places and correct errors in Google's Maps service.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

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The United States of Google: Mapping Google Usage by State

Online advertising company Chitika conducted research on which U.S. states had the highest use of Google's search engine; East and West Coast states including California, New York and Massachusetts were among the top, and more inland, Utah showed an equally strong preference.


In the running for Google search engine use was Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut.
Some Southwestern, Midwestern and Southern states showed more use than others in their respective regions; however, Chitika said in no state did Google's share of desktop-based Web searches drop below 50 percent.

Through its research, Chitika was able to show a positive correlation with Google search engine usage and the following four variables:

• Median household income
• Rate of job growth by state
• Bachelor degree or higher of user
• Median age

That means, the more each one of those variables increased or decreased, so did the odds of Google search engine usage. The effect of each independent variable, for example, median household income and median age, is measured by holding other variables constant.

Here's a sample of what the data from those four variables look like:


You'll see that certain states like Alaska show negative job growth, yet median income is on the higher end and Google usage is middle of the pack.

Chitika further explained the correlation:
"The correlative analysis provides insights at the overall level; the statistic is calculated using data on all the states. It provides a picture of the trend at the general level. As such, there may be some data points which may not exhibit the trend (positive correlation in our case), but at the macro level, the results of positive correlation are consistent."

As an advertising network that serves billions of online advertisements per month, Chitika collected data for this study from user agent info provided by web browsers when it served an ad impression.

Chitika said it maintains a database internally that identified the search engine by user agent, along with information about the state where the search query originated.

The data for all independent variables in this research was collected from the most recent Census, the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chitika said this could be just the beginning of its research on Google usage by state, as this initial analysis showed promise for a closer look to help enable marketers and advertisers to monetize investments more efficiently.

"Future research should expand on the model we have considered by including other variables which can affect Google usage rates, such as percent of population that is urban versus percent of population that is rural in each state," Chitika said in its report.

Article Post @ Search Engine Watch

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Attract new customers with local ads on the Google Maps app

Over one billion people use Google Maps services every month. On the Google Maps app, these users are often searching for local businesses - from restaurants, to car dealerships, to dentists, and more. Recently, we launched a new version of the Google Maps app for Android, iPhone, and iPad where we introduced several new features. Today we’re introducing an updated ad experience we think is more attractive for users and more effective for advertisers.

Relevant ads on the Google Maps app can now appear at the bottom of the screen after a user performs a search. They include a title, ad text, and a link to get directions. Users can tap or swipe upward to see more information — this is a new click type known as “Get location details” and results in a standard CPC charge.

Search ads in the Google Maps app (click to enlarge)

When users click on an ad to get location details, they’ll see additional information such as the business’s address, phone number, photos, reviews and more. From here, there are a number of paid and free click actions they can take. Free actions include saving business information for later, sharing a business with a friend, or starting navigation. Aggregated reporting for these free clicks is available in your account.

Ads expand to show location details in the Google Maps app (click to enlarge)

Paid clicks include the initial 'get location details' click, get directions, click-to-call and clicks on the ad headline. AdWords will only charge for up to two paid clicks per ad impression. Reporting for these paid clicks can be found by segmenting reports in your account by ‘click type.’

Getting started with ads on the Google Maps app
To show ads on the Google Maps app, advertisers need to add location extensions to their search campaigns or create an ad with AdWords Express. If your campaign is not showing ads on mobile devices or on Google search partners, you'll also need to change those settings.

You can find more information about ad pricing, free clicks, and ad eligibility in the AdWords Help Center. The new Google Maps app is available free on Google Play and in the  App Store.

Posted by Salahuddin Choudhary, Product Manager, Google Maps @ Google Adwords Blog

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Google Maps Overhaul Arrives for iOS, With Dedicated Tablet Design

After launching an overhauled Maps 2.0 app for Android last week, Google has announced an updated app for iOS devices, including a dedicated design for the iPad.
 
As with the Android release, the iOS update sports an overhauled interface with new discovery features that allow users to quickly browse and discover new places without having to type.

Google has also enhanced navigation features in the update, which aims to help users navigate around traffic.

But more importantly for Apple tablet users, the updated app has been specially designed so all the above features work better and more intuitively on a bigger screen.

"A dedicated tablet design brings all the features of Google Maps, including Street View, to a larger screen, which makes exploring the world from the comfort of your living room engaging and fun. Go from the Colosseum to your local pizza joint in just a few taps," Google said in a blog post.

Indoor mapping has also been added to the app to allow navigation around areas such as airports, shopping centers, and transit stations.

"The app now also allows users to see reports of problems on the road that you can tap to see incident details. While on the road, Google Maps will also alert you if a better route becomes available and reroute you to your destination faster."
As well as the new navigation and exploration tools, Google's Maps update also added the Zagat five star rating system that gives users a quicker read on how others have rated places like restaurants, bars, and cafes.

"For an expert's opinion, the Zagat badge of excellence and curated lists are integrated into search results so you can quickly spot the very best places," Google explained.

However, as part of the rollout of the new app, Google said last week that it will drop its Latitude tool next month, and will retire it from older versions August 9.
Other features that Google dropped into the update included an "offline maps" tool, creating "OK Maps" instead, which grants users access to maps offline by entering them into the search box when viewing the area they want for later.
The My Maps functionality is also not supported in Google's new Maps app release, but Google promised that the feature will return in future versions of the app.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

Article Post @ Search Engine Watch

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