#GoogleMapsRecs: Recommendations in Google Maps
Discover new places based on your reviews, your Google+ circles, and expert reviewers.
I love discovering new places. Above all, pubs — but also restaurants, cafes, shops, museums and all sorts of other local businesses. I live in London, and there’s so much variety here that I never run out of new places to try.
Google Maps has a number of features which help you to discover new places, and this article introduces these so you can set out on your own voyage of discovery, in your home city, or further afield.
There are three types of recommendations in Google Maps we’re going to cover here — expert recommendations, social recommendations and personal recommendations.
Ask the Experts
If you’re just getting started with Google+ and Google Maps, you may not have written any reviews yet, and maybe haven’t added anyone to your circles. This is a good time to ask the experts — the people who are most knowledgeable about the local area, and the type of business you’re looking for. There’s several ways you can get these recommendations.
First, the “Top reviewers” filter in the new Google Maps. Make a search — say “italian restaurants” — and you’ll see the standard results highlighted on the map. Click on Top reviewers, and the results change to just the places the top reviewers have reviewed:
Hover over one of the results and you can see what the experts say about it:
In the Google Maps app on your mobile, you can also find places the experts recommend with the “Explore nearby” feature. Just tap on the search box, and you’ll see the Explore nearby card appear below it. Tap on “Eat”, and, depending on where you are in the world (or where your map is currently zoomed to) you’ll hopefully see the Local favourites card:
You add the operator by:experts to any Google Maps query yourself, either on the web or in the mobile app — e.g. [pubs Oxford by:experts]
Ask your Circles
Friends, family, people you work with: all great sources for discovering new places, and Google Maps makes it easier to get recommendations from them when they’re not around to ask in person.
If some of the people in your circles have written reviews on Google Maps, then you’ll be able to get social recommendations from them when searching for places. Just make sure you’re signed in.
If you want to just see results from your circles, there’s a filter just like there is for experts. You can either click the filter underneath the search box in the new Google Maps, or just add the by:circles operator to a query yourself. As with experts, hovering over the results will show you a review from the person in your circles who reviewed that place.
On mobile, again you can either add by:circles to the query yourself, or take a look at the “From your circles” card in Explore nearby:
Just for you
Sometimes you want recommendations which are tailored just to your tastes. If you’ve already written some reviews in Google Maps — or just saved some places (those little yellow ★s on the map) — you should have some personal recommendations ready and waiting for you to explore. These will be places which are similar to places you’ve reviewed/saved.
Just like for experts and circles, there’s an operator you can try adding to any Google Maps query — places:recommended.
Actually though, you don’t necessarily even need to do a search to see your personal recommendations. They’ll be rendered on the base map as you browse around, so long as you’re zoomed in enough. The icons for these places will have a little yellow halo around them, and if you hover over them the reason they’re recommended will be displayed:
Here I’m being recommended Locanda Locatelli because it’s similar to a place I gave a positive rating to — The River Cafe. Note you’ll only get recommendations from places you’ve rated 4 or more stars.
Your personal recommendations will change over time — if you go to one of your recommended places, write a review of it, and (as long as you liked it!) you’ll get more recommendations.
Have Fun!
I hope this overview was useful, and I hope you have fun using these features to discover new places in Google Maps!
I’d love to hear about your experiences of discovering new places with the recommendations features in Google Maps — so I’d be thrilled if you could use the hash tag #GoogleMapsRecs on Twitter, Google+ or any social network of your choosing!
Thanks!
