I/O Recap: Learn about the latest features and product announcements from Google Maps Platform

Summary

In a recent video, the Google Maps Platform team discussed their latest product launches announced at Google I/O. They are focusing on making maps more immersive and easier for developers to use. Key updates include the introduction of photorealistic 3D maps in the JavaScript API, enhanced Place and Area summaries using the Gemini model, and the full release of a React integration library for the Maps JavaScript API. These features aim to improve user experience by providing rich, immersive mapping and relevant geospatial information. Google has integrated AI and extensive data to ensure developers can create engaging and informative applications. The updates are currently in experimental release, with plans to expand their availability globally.

Highlights

• Photorealistic 3D maps are now part of Google Maps JavaScript API, allowing developers to create stunning, immersive experience easily 🌆.
• The Gemini model is a game-changer, offering detailed Place and Area summaries from over 300 million contributors 🏙️.
• React developers can now leverage a dedicated library for the Google Maps API, blending geospatial data with React's popular framework 🚀.
• AI-enhanced search results provide users with relevant, contextual information, transforming how we interact with map data 🌐.
• Google's new features are poised to advance the way developers and users engage with maps, creating more dynamic and informative applications 📈.

Key Takeaways

• Google Maps Platform is revolutionizing mapping with photorealistic 3D maps in its JavaScript API, offering an earth-like experience 🌍.
• The new Gemini model enhances Place and Area summaries, making it easier for users to access relevant geospatial information with more context 📊.
• React developers can now enjoy a full integration library for Maps JavaScript API, streamlining the creation of geospatial experiences 🌐.
• The use of AI in contextual search results means users can find more tailored information, improving their decision-making process 🤖.
• These innovative features are still in experimental stages, but they promise a global rollout soon 🔄.

Overview

The Google Maps Platform team recently unveiled their latest features at Google I/O, promising a more immersive and user-friendly experience for developers and users alike. Among the standout features is the photorealistic 3D maps in the JavaScript API, which brings earth-like visualizations to developers' fingertips. This change is set to revolutionize how maps integrate into applications, providing users a new level of interactive mapping.

Another exciting feature is the integration of the Gemini model in Place and Area summaries. By harnessing data from over 300 million contributors and AI-driven insights, developers can present up-to-date, richly detailed geographic summaries in applications. This leap forward aims to simplify how users perceive locations and their contexts, fostering better decision-making and user engagement.

For React enthusiasts, the full release of a React integration library for the Maps JavaScript API is noteworthy. This new tool seamlessly combines Google Maps' comprehensive geospatial data with the React framework's modern capabilities. These updates provide an ideal solution for building intuitive, state-of-the-art mapping applications, enhancing the digital landscape for developers everywhere.

I/O Recap: Learn about the latest features and product announcements from Google Maps Platform Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hi everyone I'm Haley Conrad product manager on the Google Maps platform team and I'm joined today by Ken navarez developer Solutions engineer today we're excited to share our latest product launches announced just a few weeks ago at Google IO in Mountain View California at Google Maps platform we're always looking for opportunities to continue to evolve along alongside our
• 00:30 - 01:00 developer Community we've expanded from simple 2D maps to high resolution satellite imagery to realistic 3D models of the real world and will'll continue to invest in new Innovations to help our developers at Google IO we made some exciting announcements and introduced new products designed to help you more easily create immersive experiences in your applications our goal is to make it easier and faster for your users to orient themselves in the real world and
• 01:00 - 01:30 find the places they're looking for while making it even easier and faster for you to build with Google Maps platform as many of you already know Maps JavaScript has been our longest standing Maps API and for some of you the first product you used to build a dynamic mapping experience with Google Maps JavaScript has powered websites and applications with our Rich basem map and places information that includes more than 250 million places in
• 01:30 - 02:00 businesses around the world it's fueled Innovation shaping the way we book vacations order food or simply locate a new coffee shop but we see maps as more than just a utility as they're becoming more immersive than ever before at Google IO we announc the experimental release of photorealistic 3D maps in the maps JavaScript API this release gives you access to a real world canvas that's powered by Google's rendering technology in maps jav script for the first time we're very
• 02:00 - 02:30 excited about this new product for a number of reasons for starters one of the top requests from our developers has been to be able to access an earthlike 3D experience directly in maps JavaScript Now by combining the power of 3D natively rendered in a familiar development framework you can easily deliver 3D mapping experiences and even better at the speed your users expect by using 3D maps the this also means you
• 02:30 - 03:00 can focus more time on building your application and less time worrying about selecting a renderer or building capabilities in house you can also simply get started with just a single line of code so what does this bring to your applications 3D maps includes Google's extensive highresolution 3D imagery with coverage in over 2,500 cities and in more than 50 countries around the world this also means your 3D canvas are automatically includes all
• 03:00 - 03:30 the rich places data and labeling that you and your users expect from a Google map having a comprehensive map like this makes it possible to deliver impressive 3D visualizations so that your users can virtually explore an area tour a location or visualize spatial patterns like other features in maps JavaScript 3D maps was designed as a web component for even easier development using HTML or JavaScript using these elements you can overlay and
• 03:30 - 04:00 style polygons and polylines add a third dimension with Extrusion and control the visibility to expose the underlying 3D map features customizing these visualizations allows you to tailor your 3D map whether you're trying to highlight a specific area of Interest visualize a rout or draw attention to key location based information 3D maps seamlessly provides a real world backdrop for your web or mobile web experience Ena in views from
• 04:00 - 04:30 block or city level to a full Globe view you can customize your experience with flexible camera controls and event listeners this allows you to orient the 3D map around specific locations create more guided exploration within the 3D scene and directly respond to user interactions these simple optimizations can really help create a more Dynamic and engaging map experience as a reminder last year we introduced aerial view API and photo realistic 3D tiles in the map tiles API
• 04:30 - 05:00 which showed us all the creative ways you've used our digital twin to Showcase new ideas and tell better stories about places now we've extended our portfolio of products even further to help you create more immersive experiences no matter what you're building for whether you want pre-rendered videos using aerial view to use your own renderer with map tiles or leave the rendering to us in your JavaScript applications there is an option for you this is just the
• 05:00 - 05:30 beginning and we can't wait to see all the engaging 3D experiences you build with maps JavaScript and I'm joined today by Ken navaras developer Solutions engineer hi Haley and welcome everyone at Google IO we also announced that we're bringing the capabilities of our Gemini model to the Google Maps platform starting with the placees API we are taking our Rich information about more than 250 million businesses and places and combining that with Gemini's generative functions to create helpful
• 05:30 - 06:00 summaries of places and Geographic areas that can be shared right in your apps and websites these summaries are created using the Gemini model to analyze the place information and insights from the Google Maps community of over 300 million contributors helping you display the most up-to-date information possible in a fresh new format we're also adding additional data to the result set returned by the place API search this additional data contextually matches is the user query we call this contextual
• 06:00 - 06:30 search results now when your users search for places in your applications you'll be able to display more relevant reviews and more relevant photos to help them more easily compare places and make decisions these features are now available to all developers as an experimental release contextual search results are available globally place and area summaries are available in the US with plans to expand to more countries over time time with these new features
• 06:30 - 07:00 it'll be faster and easier for people to find the information they're looking for in your applications let me take a moment to highlight a few of the new capabilities we'll start with summaries there are two types Place summaries and area summaries Place summaries come in two formats a short overview and a longer description longer descriptions average around 400 characters and provide Rich insight to a place for examp example for restaurants that would
• 07:00 - 07:30 include must order dishes Ambiance and service quality longer descriptions are available for many other place types including shops supermarkets parks and movie theaters with more to come in the future they require a minimum amount of data such as reviews and business attributes so are not available for all places short overviews average around 100 characters using the Gemini model we're able to update short overviews
• 07:30 - 08:00 more frequently and cover far more places in the US than their longer counterparts area summaries allow you to highlight things to do in the immediate surrounding area area summaries call out shopping restaurants and attractions within walking distance from a specific Place think of area summaries as useful for helping a user understand the area around a place they might be spending time at for example an automaker can provide drivers with area summaries of
• 08:00 - 08:30 their electric vehicle charging stations to better inform a driver of nearby things like coffee shops restaurants or stores so a user can choose which charging station best suits their needs area summaries come in one format and are divided into content blocks each content block covers a specific topic such as things to do coffee shopping and more lastly we're now using AI to make
• 08:30 - 09:00 it easier for your users to understand why they see particular search results by including more context with what we call contextual search results so if you have an app that allows users to explore local restaurants your users can search for dogf friendly restaurants to see a list of relevant dining spots in addition to the results you're used to getting the response will include review Snippets that speak to dog friendly nature of the restaurant photos of dogs at the the restaurant and business
• 09:00 - 09:30 attributes relevant to being a restaurant this data can help your users make more informed decisions and give them higher confidence in the results you're providing you can try the new contextual search results at no cost during the experimental phase and we can't wait to see what you build and for our last highlight at Google IO we're excited to announce the 1.0 release of our react integration library for maps JavaScript API last November we announced the alpha
• 09:30 - 10:00 release of the first Google sponsored library for integrating Maps JavaScript API with react the very popular web framework with the goal of empowering react developers to effortlessly build Rich geospatial experiences this was really important to us since react is currently the most popular front-end web framework and in use by over half of front-end web developers and there is tremendous Community demand for Google Maps and react apps so what does the react Google Maps Library do for you first idiomatic react integration the
• 10:00 - 10:30 library incorporates elements from the map's JavaScript API as react components for an intuitive development experience complete with State Management and hooks to access the underlying map instance second extensibility the included context and hooks unlock custom component creation to suit any specific use case and third integration with other Frameworks this release allows you to combine the strengths of of the react Google Maps library with degl the data
• 10:30 - 11:00 visualization Powerhouse to Overlay compelling 2D and 3D visualizations in your Google Maps for more information and to get started you can find documentation and examples on the react Google Maps Library website and to further support developers we also offer step-by-step tutorial as a code lab as well as code samples for integrating react components from this library with other web components for common and complex use cases
• 11:00 - 11:30 we can't wait to see what react based Google map project you create we hope the session provided you with a valuable overview of these latest features from Google Maps platform to get an even deeper dive on these announcements you can watch our IO session titled new ways to build immersive 3D maps and create geospatial apps with AI and you can also check out our Workshop more with maps in your Android app with jetpack compose both of these are available in the resource section of the webinar page and on
• 11:30 - 12:00 YouTube thank you for attending today's session and happy mapping