There is a continuous and unstoppable advancement happening in technology and every other field. New features and updates are being added to existing technologies. Popular Times is one such breakthrough technology from Google.
Impact on Consumers
Recently Google launched a new feature which will be included in Google search and Google maps named as Google’s popular times.The update was launched in July 2016 and is helping those people who hate to wait in long queues and love to visit uncrowded places.
Using this feature, you can get an idea that how crowded a place is or can get throughout the day. You must have someday tried to avoid long lines or wondered when is the best time to go for a coffee or lunch or go shopping or hit the gym. In a world where technology is eliminating almost every cumbersome task in life and where people are getting more and more impatient, Google very well understands, how much important it is to provide the best user experience.
Along with this real-time feature, you can also know how long people usually stay at one place, so that you can manage your timings accordingly. People usually prefer to spend more time at places with good ambience, hygiene,value and many other advantages according to the type of place. So, people will eventually get a rough idea or review about the place using this feature.
Impact on Businesses
If you are an owner of a popular restaurant, then you need to be aware of this feature as well. Your customers may not walk in if they got to know that your place is crowded at the moment. And eventually, it will lead to some amount of decrease in your sales which will not be good for your business. Also, there will be times when this feature will be good for your business. Some people will like that your restaurant is crowded hence popular and serves good quality as well.
This may help some eCommerce stores as when there is a busy period; some users will choose to shop online rather than wasting their precious time in an overcrowded store. While on the other hand, during a time when the store is less busy, some shoppers who like to do online shopping can decide to visit a shopping mall with their loved ones.
How Does it Work?
Now you might be thinking how this new feature from Google works? Google uses aggregated and anonymous GPS data from users who have Google apps on their Android mobile phones and collects location data from its users. iOS users can go for Chrome and Safari apps. It works the same way Google Maps does and crowdsources traffic data and can determine how busy a place is. Google’s ability to gather information from millions of smartphones is what fuels this awesomely helpful feature. You might be thinking that Google will track your location and further save it for the successful functioning of this feature, but the answer is a big no because the information is kept completely anonymous and users should not think twice before enabling their GPS location access setting on their device.
How To Use It?
To use this feature, firstly you need to open the Google App on your Android Device or Safari and Chrome App on your iOS device. Then click on “more about” button and the information on the venue you searched will open. Like, I searched for a nearby Mcdonald’s restaurant to know when is the best time to have a quick bite of my favourite meal. It was Thursday, and it was 1 pm on my watch. Popular times was showing that it was not busy at this moment and will get busy around 7pm to 8pm. On a Monday it will not get busy the whole day and it’s better to avoid the whole day on a Sunday.
The new feature from Google is indeed quite a deal in itself as its absolutely free for the consumer to know whether it is a good idea to visit a place or not. You can plan yourself and save a lot of precious time using this feature.
Businesses too will surely benefit from this feature as it will help optimise the customers they have at each time helping them avoid over-crowding on some days and too fewer customers on other days.
