Opening a new business location is a major commitment, yet many people still rely on old-school research methods to guide their decisions. To beat your competitors to prime real estate, you need a modern approach. Enter Places Insights in BigQuery. With this powerful tool, your team can choose winning business locations that drive sales and accelerate growth. Let’s take a look at how it works. Why Your Business Should Ditch the Manual Research If you’re using static maps

From planning major infrastructure to assessing the impact of natural disasters, businesses and urban planners rely on robust mapping tools to understand the real world. Today, those capabilities are expanding significantly. Google has introduced three powerful AI updates to its imagery products, helping organisations visualise and analyse geospatial information faster than ever before. Here is a look at the new tools transforming how we build with real-world data. Grounding

To move beyond simple chat interfaces, AI agents require two foundational layers to be truly effective. First, they need a grounding truth layer to anchor their reasoning in the physical world. Second, they require a visual interface to communicate that information through an intuitive, interactive experience. At Cloud Next, Google announced a new portfolio that provides a dedicated geospatial intelligence layer. Here is a look at the tools helping you turn complex AI text in

Understanding the complex relationship between human behaviour and the physical world is critical for modern organisations. However, relying on static maps and decade-old census snapshots is no longer sufficient. At Cloud Next, Google introduced the Preview of Population Dynamics Insights (PDI), a new Google Earth AI dataset available via Google Maps Platform. Powered by Google Research's Population Dynamics Foundation Model, PDI is a first-of-its-kind geospatial embeddings d

When people think of a hackathon, they often picture teams racing to build something new from scratch. At 28East, our latest internal hackathon took a different approach. Instead of building a new app, our development team worked through a set of bugs deliberately introduced into one of our existing codebases. The goal was simple: sharpen technical skills, share knowledge across the team, and improve how we identify and solve issues in the systems we build and maintain. A Pr

The last mile can be an absolute game-changer for your business in today’s fast-paced environment. Businesses need a little assistance to overcome logistics challenges head-on; if not managed effectively, this can result in delays and inefficiencies, reducing costs and increasing overall customer dissatisfaction. So how can we streamline this crucial step? Well, let’s explore the latest Google Maps innovations that will boost delivery efficiency and drive your business opera

For over two decades, Google Earth has been a window to our world, allowing millions to explore the planet from above. However, today's global challenges demand more than just exploration; they demand action. In 2026, Google is hitting the accelerator, transforming Google Earth into an advanced geospatial platform built specifically for professionals. Here is a look at the core shifts driving the platform's future. Iconic Imagery Meets Professional-Grade Data The foundation o

High-stakes projects rely on high-quality location data, but getting the context you need shouldn't feel like a scavenger hunt. Historically, answering spatial questions meant hunting down disparate datasets, wrestling with formatting, toggling between tools, and trying to paint a complete picture. To help you spend more time making decisions and less time wrangling data, Google Earth has announced massive improvements: global coverage of data layers, native Earth Engine rast

Managing massive infrastructure networks has historically relied on costly, time-consuming field surveys. But what if you could remotely inventory and monitor assets at scale, straight from your desk? Google Maps Platform has officially made Street View Insights Generally Available, a powerful dataset designed to help organisations automate asset management and shift from reactive to proactive maintenance. Unlocking the Power of Street View Insights Street View Insights taps

Buying a home is often cited as one of life’s most stressful experiences, especially when moving to an unfamiliar area. With nearly half of today's buyers willing to consider purchasing a property without seeing it in person, the demand for robust, digital-first real estate platforms is at an all-time high. Realtor.com is meeting this challenge head-on, leveraging Google Maps Platform to provide buyers with total confidence in a 'sight unseen' market. Bringing Listings to Li

Local knowledge is the lifeblood of Google Maps. With over 500 million contributors globally, authentic photos, reviews, and videos play a massive role in helping users navigate their world and confidently decide where to go. To make it even easier for this community to share their perspectives, Google Maps has rolled out three exciting new updates. 1. Quickly Find and Share Your Favourite Moments Photos and videos are essential for giving users a true sense of a location, wh

For South African Internet Service Providers (ISPs), expanding network coverage is a strategic necessity. Whether you are targeting local underserved areas or looking northward into the broader African market, stepping into new territories means the familiar landscape vanishes. The biggest disadvantage is not a lack of capital; it is a lack of visibility. Without direct access to established fibre maps in neighbouring countries, South African ISPs often fly blind. This leads

Imagine you’re a delivery driver: your route is efficient, your ETA is spot on, and the map says you have arrived at your destination. Yet, you’re standing at a random office building instead of the correct delivery address. Addresses used to be treated as simple points on a map, but they actually need context, such as specific entrances, access points, and outlines. These complexities are often overlooked by traditional address systems, leaving businesses and drivers confus

Better Trucks is a last-mile delivery network on a mission to create tech-first and radically transparent delivery systems. Their engineering strategy is deeply aligned with Google Cloud and Google Maps, which power their APIs, routing systems, and machine learning models. These platforms also help them plan, price and execute delivery routes for a growing multi-market network. Single-Vehicle Routing with Google Maps Platform Before implementing full-scale route optimisatio

In today’s rapidly scaling cloud architectures, APIs are the essential building blocks that drive applications. But as organisations grow, these APIs often become scattered across various gateways, teams, and platforms. This decentralised sprawl can lead to blind spots, impacting management and resuability and creating obstacles for adopting AI tech. In this blog, we’ll take a look at how you can solve this with: Specification boost add-ons. A new integration between API H

AI search is changing the rules of business visibility. Now, it’s about credibility instead of keywords. Today’s AI engines prioritise businesses that can confidently ground real-world, verified location data. If your addresses, coordinates, and coverage areas aren’t structured and consistent, it means your business is practically invisible. In this article, we dive into what exactly you need to do to maximise your business’s location data to improve your visibility in AI se

Innobrix, a startup from the Netherlands, is redefining how buildings are visualised and configured in the architecture, engineering and construction sectors. They are combining interactive 3D modelling with real‑world map context from Google Maps Platform 3D Maps. The platform earned the Grand Prize at the 2025 Google Maps Platform Awards for its innovative use of mapping technologies. Making Construction Projects Visible and Customisable Traditional construction workflows o

Kroo Bank, a digital bank serving customers across Europe, has improved how users understand their finances.

The AI era is transforming how businesses connect with customers, especially in sectors like e-commerce, logistics, and connectivity.

Text-based AI replies can feel flat. With the new Contextual View, part of Google Maps AI Kit, it’s now possible to enrich AI chat interfaces with interactive maps, real-world data and visual context.