Google Maps rolls out community feed for more information on nearby area

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Google Maps is adding a new community feed for users to get more information on their local areas.

The new feed in the Explore Tab shows latest reviews, photos and posts added to Google Maps by local experts and people a user follows. It will also display food and drink merchants and articles from publishers.

Google said more than 20 million people contribute every day to Google Maps including recommendations for their favourite spots, updates to business services, fresh reviews and ratings, photos, answers to other people’s questions, updated addresses and more.

With community feed, Google aims to organise this information at one place to make it more accessible for users.

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Users can go to the feed to see what’s happening in their area and can browse the feed for top recommendations of things to do from Google Maps users in that area.

Additionally, it allows users to pan and zoom the map to find helpful information for almost any location in the world from in-the-know locals.

The community feed also shows information according to user’s interest. If a user has marked an interest in certain type of food or drinks in Google Maps, they will see more recommendations, photos and business posts for that type of dining.

Google said it will benefit businesses as well. In early testing of the community feed, it saw that posts from merchants are seen two times more than before the feed existed.

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“So now more people can see if a local business is offering a new service, has a limited time specialty or opened outdoor seating,” Google said.