Google IO 2019 just happened and there were some really cool announcements, not least of all that Maps AR navigation is open to all Pixel users.
But I want to talk about one of my favorite pieces - tagging of dishes in photos. It's something that I have been going around telling everyone since it launched on Google Maps in some areas. But it's not widely available so it was hard to explain.
You can see some guides here:
- https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7321152?hl=en
- https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/10/19/google-maps-rolling-photo-dish-tagging-restaurant-listing...
- https://9to5google.com/2019/05/02/google-maps-menu-pictures/
It is super cool because the dish naming information gets used to link up with your restaurant reviews. And now as of #io19, it is also linked to Google Lens menu detection.
- https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535639/google-lens-restaurant-menu-bill-splitting-tip-calculatin...
- https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/snap-a-photo-of-a-menu-and-google-lens-can-tell-you-what-to-order/
Google Lens will allow you to identify popular menu dishes, and tap to show relevant reviews and photos on Google Maps. Isn't that incredibly useful?
I myself dislike having to choose my dish without seeing some photos of it. I spend time browsing the reviews and using the search function to find my dish. This will be super useful.
I encourage everyone to tag your photos! (hint: you get additional points for doing so. Very useful to reach L10) And you can also fix other tags or names if you spot wrong ones.
Happy mapping!
2022
