Google is finally rolling out the local search features previewed earlier this year, including the ability to search your surroundings with your phone’s camera.
Those updates and more are now available. Here’s an overview of the local search updates launching today:
Beginning next week, search with Google Maps Live View is rolling out in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo on Android and iOS. With Live View, you can use your phone’s camera to find information about places around you - whether a business is open, how busy it is, the price range, and its star rating.
Google has launched a new feature that allows users to search for restaurants by dish. To use the feature, users can either type in the name of the dish they are looking for, or they can use Google Lens to conduct a visual search. The new feature is launching today in English in the United States.
In addition to the new restaurant search feature, Google is also adding a filter to searches for electric vehicle charge stations. The new filter will make it easier to find fast chargers.
With the holiday season upon us, many of us will be traveling to see family and friends. Google has just made it easier to find accessible places worldwide with the “Accessible Places” setting in the Google Maps app. With this setting turned on, businesses that have an accessible entrance will have a wheelchair icon next to their profile. If a location is not wheelchair-accessible, the icon will have a strikethrough. This feature is live now on Android and iOS in countries where EV charging stations are available.