Benefits of Google Maps
Today when exists the internet, people are able to access much more information about the world and access different world views and perceptions. The web has brought forth different technologies that are constantly making our lifestyles more convenient and comfortable. For instance, the internet has led to the development of Google Maps which allows users to view world mags in each two-dimensional and three-dimensional views. It also comes with other plugins such as Google Street View that permits users to gain a perspective about how a extraordinary part of the world looks, even if they have never physically been there. For instance, to have a seem at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Google Street View Can allows the user to virtually have a view of the street where the monument is located. Google has therefore made life easier in the modern day where infrastructure development and construction growth has made it difficult for people to navigate through their cities. The use of Google Maps has helped people to reach their different destinations and to locate different places in both the cities they are in and outside efficiently and effectively. As such, Google Maps literacy will be extremely beneficial in the society for different applications in our social economic and cultural practices.
Increased Accessibility for Businesses
Google Maps increases the accessibility of businesses to their clients and thereby increasing their profitability. The technology of google Maps utilizes a service known as Google Places, which allows different places and structures in a given city to register the geographical information about their locations on the Google Maps platform. After being listed on the platform, the listed location becomes visible on Google Maps, search that it can be searched and found on the service. This has aided many businesses and other offices to remain visible on the map, as it helps to connect the clients to the services they might require or even connect people with the places they are searching for in a simple and convenient manner. For businesses that are fiercely competitive such as the food delivery industry, Google Maps help to provide accessibility to the client, visibility to the client who is looking for a fast food service, and also in the reduction of the distance the delivery will take, so as to reduce costs. The technology of Google Maps, therefore, presents important opportunities to improve business since it helps to improve the accessibility of the business to the clients.
Enhanced Education and Learning
Other contemporary Americans who stand to immensely benefit from the Google Maps literacy are students who can benefit from virtual sightseeing, which would them better understand geographical and historical concepts. Virtual sightseeing would make the studying experiences of some of the issues that are taught in their classrooms. This would also increase their concentration in class and help them to understand what they are learning better. The effect of this is that the students would begin to show an improvement in the performance of the students in these topics and therefore a more effective education for the students. Students of departments that include the use of geographical features and topological features in their executions can also use google maps to simulate the conditions they need to understand the concepts being taught. For instance, students in the fields of engineering and other construction related fields can utilize the Google Maps technologies to simulate the conditions so as to understand the concepts and to simulate the right results for the safety of the community (Zhang 19). As such, Google Maps and other related plugins can be extremely useful in the education sector, to better teach students about the different concepts that are taught in their respective field and also how to simulate the expected results and considerations according to that field.
Advantages for Professionals
Professionals in different industries can greatly benefit from the different capabilities that Google Maps is able to offer. For instance, through the use of the Google Maps extension application known as Google earth can be used by professionals in the construction, surveying, and engineering fields to project the simulations of their site designs. This will give them the capability to ensure that their creations are safe and durable through comparing of the design to the geographical and topographical feature of the site that they have selected. In addition, Google Maps can be utilized by management experts to guarantee lean management of any transport operations through optimized route planning. Optimizing the route planning in any management application ensures that the shortest route is taken, so as to reduce the time, cost and risks of transportation. Other professional fields that can take advantage of the abilities of Google Maps include those in the doorstep delivery services who need a route optimization plan and a convenient way to arrive at the desired destination (Santos, Coutinho-Rodrigues, and Antunes 6). Other businesses in the transportation business are also using the technologies to manage the operation speed, timings of deliveries and pickups considering traffic, so as to ensure that the clients get the best services and the business remains profitable. This also applies to taxi drivers and other players in the transport sector. Thus the use of Google Maps allows the management team to take advantage of the panoramic views of the streets to plan the transport operations.
Real-Time Traffic Updates and Entertainment
The conventional Americans can also benefit from google mapping since it provides the real-time traffic updates between one point and the next, using a technology known as Google Traffic. The application also takes advantage of its panoramic view of the streets that its users are on and the destinations that they are going to, in order to give the users correct real-time traffic updates of the directions that the uses are heading to. This allows users to plan their time well in view of the time wastage that traffic snarl-ups could cause. Real-time traffic updates also allow the users to make more informed decisions about the roads to use to their selected destination and even when the use of public transport would be a better decision (Chunli 41). As technology continues to develop, Google Maps are also being used for entertainment purpose through online computer games that require virtual sightseeing. A number of Games have been designed in the recent past allowing people to utilize the wonderful opportunities of online maps and virtual sightseeing to entertain the users of these games in interactive games for leisure.
Explore Different Places and Cultures
The conventional American can also make use of Google Maps to access opportunities to explore different places and their cultures, regardless of the spatial and temporal distance. The use of this technology gives the users of these applications to explore the world from different perspectives, therefore giving the users of these applications an opportunity to learn about the lifestyle and environmental features of a different place. As they learn about that different place, they also get to know more about their culture, and therefore Google Maps has allowed people to explore different cultures through learning about other places.
Conclusion
With the new technologies, location information has become an important part of our professional and social lives in the modern society. The technologies being invented in modern have made it possible for the conventional American to coordinate their location using the different devices allowing for tracking of the location of different things and places. This involuntary tracking has been tapped in Google Maps has allowed for members of society to improve their productivity and efficiency of operations. For instance, the application of Google Maps has very beneficial uses for the individuals, students, professionals of different fields, students and even those interested in exploring the different world views and cultures of different places across the globe. The ease of access to location and geographical information about different places due to technological advancements has continued to further enhance the convenience and comfort in the lives of the modern day conventional American. As technology continues to advance and become more applicable in different applications, Google Maps, and its applications are also expected to improve and defy more odds (Web Reading n.p). For instance, a study has been conducted on how Google Amps and its application can be used to conduct biological dataset visualization to avoid the discarding of potentially useful data, as the usability of data depends on the time investment of the data sets for the expected results. As technology continues to be advanced the applications of Google Maps into the daily life activities will continue to improve, and thus the literacy of Google Maps is of extreme importance in the modern day.
Work Cited
Chunli, F. E. N. G. "Logistics Company Real-time Vehicle Monitoring in Google Maps [J]." Geospatial Information 3 (2011): 041.
Santos, Luís, João Coutinho-Rodrigues, and Carlos Henggeler Antunes. "A web spatial decision support system for vehicle routing using Google Maps." Decision Support Systems 51.1 (2011): 1-9.
Web reading: The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies.
Zhang, Hao, et al. "Land use information release system based on Google Maps API and XML." Geoinformatics, 2010 18th International Conference on. IEEE, 2010.
