Another new feature in Google Maps. Help in finding the entrance to the building

Google Maps is not only one of the most popular services of the Mountain View company, but also by far the best free navigation application on the market. It is useful for both car drivers and pedestrians. The latest feature that Google is testing will appeal to both.

Google Maps with a new feature. You will find the entrance to the building easier

, the creators of Google Maps are currently testing a function that will make it easier for us to find the entrance to individual buildings. Probably everyone has experienced a situation in the past when the application took us to the right address, but we still could not locate the entrance gate or front door. The problem mainly concerns large residential and service complexes.

Google wants to solve this issue. While testing the Google Maps application, Android Police journalists noticed that when you zoom in on a given building, quite characteristic green icons now appear, showing where exactly the entrances are located.

New feature in Google Maps photo: Android Police

According to information from Android Police, this function is currently available in large cities (it works, among others, in Berlin and several American metropolises). Moreover, it can only be used by users of a specific version of Android (11.17.0101) on the Google Pixel 7a smartphone.

We experimented with several types of buildings, ranging from hotels and doctor’s offices, through supermarkets, electronics stores, and ending with cafes and restaurants in New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, as well as in Berlin, Germany. The entries appeared in some places but not others, indicating that Google may still be in the process of collecting the necessary information

– explains Android Police.

Of course, it is almost certain that in the coming months this function will come to other countries and cities. So we just have to be patient.

Are Google Maps divorcing the search engine? This is the EU’s doing

There is also worse news. For some time now, people using the Google search engine in Poland may have noticed a small but quite irritating change. Until recently, when we entered the name of a given place (e.g. a restaurant) in Google Search, a fragment of Google Maps with the marked location also appeared in the right pane of the browser, next to information such as telephone numbers, address and opening hours. After clicking on this section, we were automatically transferred to Google Maps.

However, this function was recently removed from the search engine. Reason? Entry into force of the EU provisions of the Digital Market Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), i.e. acts relating to digital markets. In short, the new law is intended to give users greater freedom in choosing the services they use. Large companies will no longer be able to lock them in their “bubbles” and take advantage of their monopoly position, which they have so far done with great pleasure.

The new regulations also prohibit technological giants from “favoring their services”, and the rather deep integration between the Google search engine and the Google Maps application could be considered as such actions. The Mountain View company had to separate its services more in order to avoid accusations of monopolistic practices.

>>>