I, V, M. And what are we shorting this time? So when I was recently using Google Maps, I was wondering, hey, this is a pretty nifty technology. If you think about it, I mean, it's become so ubiquitous that we've stopped wondering.
And you stopped asking for direction. I stopped asking for direction since I was born, but I stopped getting lost because I was not asking for direction. It would be disturbing if you asked for directions before you were born. I thought, here it's OK, cool.
OK, this way. It's not OK. Very distantly. So I was wondering, basically, how does Google Maps work?
I always had in my head, it could be some vague notion that traffic data is collected by live mobile phone data. So that I always had my head. But I really wanted to dig into this. I've dug into this a little more by which I mean, I read three blogs about this.
And it's quite interesting, actually. So Google Maps works with a number of various sources. So while mobile phone data is one of them, the base thing is they have a lot of map partners. And this is interesting.
The map partners, they have something called a base map partner program, where they partner with people who actually go about collecting map data. So your local government agencies and things like that. And it's an entirely non-paid thing. So what is the benefit for somebody to submit their hard cartographed data over to Google?
A lot of things, like it could improve navigation for a community. And this is what Google says, improve navigation for your community with new roads and housing developments, bike paths, et cetera, et cetera. You can update major landmarks. And if some stuff like that has changed, ensure accurate representation of critical infrastructure like hospitals, police, station airports, et cetera.
So basically, Google is saying, hey, we are the largest distributor of your data. If you wanted to get out there, then give your data to us. That is basically what Google is saying. But would that be like, I mean, assuming even if a government is so inclined to share that data or if any local bodies are inclined to, how does the data get there so fast?
So there is a process for uploading this data in certain formats actually extremely well-structured. In a certain, it needs to be there in a certain format. It's vetted obviously by the team and stuff. So there are, I mean, it's not very random.
You can't go and vandalize it that easily as well. And in most important, this is just a small, this is just one of the ways in which Google collects data. There are other ways as well. One of the more popularly known ways of latest review, where they basically have 360-degree cameras attached to a top cars.
And in the case of one random island, sheep. Sheep. And they basically go about taking 360 photos day in and day out. And obviously, some cities like in the West have this more than in say, some cities in India, which is why the maps, they're super advanced to a level of knowing exactly the elevation of every building.
Or it gets updated a lot more frequently in that sense. They actually have very sophisticated technology for this, which I found very interesting. They have OCR technology, the optical character. Oster while used by engineering college students to scan their seniors' dissertations so that they could just copy the same thing into Microsoft Word.
Also, OCR readers for multiple choice questions. Multiple choice. Color circle fully. So these guys use OCRs to read signs, to update signs.
So if a road name has changed or if a shop name has changed, and to notice other new things, if the same vehicle is traveling on the road after a period of a month, this is the same as before, the same as before. This wasn't there before. So that gets updated in maps. There's things like that.
Is this manual or is it machine-led? Is machine-led. Is machine-led. Yeah.
Is machine-led. And this has also led to some extent indoor navigation as well, which is why a few museums and stuff have this. There are some very interesting things that Google does for checks and stuff like that. So these are two.
So one is map submission, one is street view, and the third is of course satellites, which is then cross-checked with the data that they have from street view. So it's a combination of many things together that gets it up. And it is a cleverness of Google. And it is a cleverness and scale, and scale of Google, not to mention now where the users come in.
So users help Google update maps in two ways. One is, of course, by traffic data. Historically, Google knows that Western Express Highway is going to be crammed on weekdays from this time to this time, purely because so many Android phones or phones running maps or other Google server. Density of density.
Yeah, exactly. So it can predict and all that and show real time and stuff like that. That's one way. And the second way is of course, the good old Samaritan contributions of people to Google.
Hey, this store doesn't exist anymore. Or this is a new store. This is a new name of the store or restaurant or whatever. So with all this combined and all the smart chap sitting in California, this is basically how Google Maps works.
Yeah, so I mean, I subscribe to this option of being part of the guides program of Google Maps, which basically what I do is they ask some very simple multiple choice questions to you. Like, is this so if you go to a particular place that will detect that you've been there, and then we're like, does this place have parking? Is this a good place for us to sit down, me, is this place so expensive? Like it'll ask you like about three or four multiple choice questions.
And if there are even say 5% of the people who are responding to these questions or even 2% of people, that makes it enough for them to get a good idea of what that place is about. Yeah, right. And one of the biggest reasons for Google Maps success is that it was actually one of the earliest softwares to be embeddable on other sites and other apps through what is called an API. An API is basically something that think of it as something that handshakes between one app, allowing you to be integrated into another app almost seamlessly, which is why you have the Google Maps working perfectly within an Uber or within a swiggy or something where it's basically Google selling their technology, leasing their technology out to these companies.
And that ubiquity and that usage, plus of course the huge amounts of money that's coming in, is really what's helping Google Maps grow. One thing I remember reading somewhere, I don't remember exactly where, sometimes to prevent theft of maps or something, I remember reading somewhere. Google sometimes when it sends out map data, sometimes it deliberately puts in a typo or something. So they know that, and they'll put in a very obscure place that nobody's going to search for.
So if they see that same error, they know that that data has been copied. It's the same equivalent of that Van Halen M&M's story, if you're talking about it, that is basically it in terms of how Google Maps operates. But then along the way, I came across some fascinating trivia, which I thought I'd share with you guys. What is where to technologies?
Where to? Where to? You predict where someone is going? No, this is the name of a company.
It's not like Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program designed by two guys at where two technologies. In 2004, this started it. So this was a company that was acquired by Google back in October, 2000. Which then converted it into a web application.
And what is fascinating is in 2005, February, the product manager of Google Maps wrote a lovely little, it's sometimes fun to go back in time and see what the first review of the iPhone was or something. And I'm just quoting, this is the small post that he put up. We think maps can be maps in small M, can be used for in fun. So we've designed Google Maps capital M to simplify how to get from point A to point B.
Say you're looking for hotels near LAX, or Los Angeles airport with Google Maps, you'll be able to see nearby hotels, et cetera, et cetera. Click and drag the map or get step by step instructions, play with keyboard shortcuts, et cetera, I'll embed the link of this blog post. But it's so cool to see this is almost 15 years back, the first iteration of this and at that point of time, they probably didn't even think that it's going to be as widely used as it is today. So many people often wonder this map's free and such a great, amazing software, satellite sending it to space, how can we free?
The thing is it's not free for everybody, it's free for you and I to use. There is a paid version, there are certain features also that needs a lot of payment. And one of the super premium things is asset tracking. So when I say asset tracking, when you see on Swiggy or delivery guys will be 14 minutes away, 10 minutes, that is basically asset tracking.
That can be used from a consumer facing point of view like how's we do that? Yeah, that's a paid API. Yeah, that's a paid API. Or it can be used for internal tracking.
I'm guessing somebody like a DHL or something like this would use it to track it. Yeah, it'd be really valuable. Yeah. Any logistics based on it?
Absolutely. And the prices, there are various prices for this. Like the standard version is free up to 25,000 map loads per day. So I think that's the way they measure it.
And then after that it's 50 cents per 1000 additional map loads up to 100,000 map loads overall daily. And then it goes on increasing exponentially after that. So somewhat, in 2012, 7,000 people were working on Google Maps. How many were working on the disaster that was Apple Maps at the same time?
10 times, 100. Oh, yeah. So 7,000 people less were working on Apple Maps. But the design was perfect.
The design was perfect. Okay. There is a city or town I guess called SZECIN in Poland. What is there in this place?
It's related to Google Maps. What is that? Sure. Oh, there's a giant Google Maps red marker monument.
Ah, the location pin. Yeah. So there's a lot of different maps for the International Space Station exists. Yeah.
And there apparently was some monopoly Google Maps version floating around at some point in time when I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm hoping that somebody archived it or something but couldn't find it. How much information do you think Google Maps has? This is an interesting one.
In the size or the... What is the metric? Bites. Bites.
Bites. Bites. The one that I said is petabytes. Yeah.
I mean, you've got a unit right. It's 20 petabytes. One petabyte is 1000 TV. So 20 into 1000 TV.
Yeah. So it's not just loads. It always starts from somewhere in the US and then it navigates to where you are. That is not a random decision.
What is that original location? It doesn't just say US as a whole. And it's not the geographical center of the US either. It's the Google Plex in Palo Alto.
Close. It's something in Napa, California. It's actually the point of the childhood home of one of the developers. Ah, okay.
So it's a... Yeah. Medbrook apartments in Lawrence. Yeah.
And completely unrelated and definitely not Easter Egg Manor. Oh, you load the Ula maps. It always starts from some road in Bipan-Haly, Bangalore. Yes.
It always starts from there in navigates to Bombay. It's some random place in the video nowhere. Which probably doesn't have a home. Anyway, this next fact is purely from the fact that I spent about half my life in this country, Bahrain.
Bahrain's government banned Google Earth because it allowed Bahrain citizens to see vast tracks of royal owned land and their palaces next to poor and overcrowded Shiite villages. Wow. So particularly bad. Yeah.
Another really cool Google maps fact is that if you try and put... So Google maps has directions, right? So you can track this thing. If you try and put directions between like improbable locations, like can I find directions from India to say China or Japan?
And what they do is they... Earlier, I mean, I think now they have changed. Now they have the flight option. Fly to that flight.
Before that they used to have only the land option. So it will take you right to the coast. It will give you directions right to the edge of the coast. And then afterwards some...
Come on. Some people would say kayak your way to China now. And then continue the directions from China. There are still some Google map Easter eggs.
Just a quick search will help you find them. Like I think if you still search for Mordor or something and... Yeah. One or two more.
Those are... Game of Thrones. Who do you say? Lotier references.
Then it will tell you... Last week. Yeah, I haven't seen both. Okay.
The height at which high-res city imagery is taken. What do you think? It is? 100 feet.
No, it's 800 to 1500 feet. Actually. That's 243 to 458 meters. For those of you who think the right way.
The traffic routing functionality apparently saves everybody two years. Yeah, that's pretty much about it actually. And I have no jokes about it. Yeah, it's a lot less creepy than Facebook actually.
You never know. It's not really a con point. No, no, no. If you want creepy, then just search for your location history.
Oh my god. And Facebook doesn't hold a candle to it. Facebook knowing that you're a neurotic liberal is nothing compared to Google. No, you're a neurotic liberal.
How often are you a neurotic liberal? Alright, so that's about it with this shorty. So think about this every time you use Google Maps again. It's a fascinating piece of text.
If you haven't downloaded it already for whatever reason, why you downloaded a podcast app over Google Maps. But anyway, continue using Google. Bye-bye.