Will Google Change The Way We Travel?

April 1, 2009 at 9:16 AM | by Omri | Comments (0)

This month's Conde Nast Traveler has a fascinating backgrounder on Google Earth and Google Maps by Mike DiPaola. It turns out that the ability to visualize every part of an increasingly interconnected planet might have a few consequences for tourists:

So, will the new technology relegate paper maps and bound atlases to eBay and Antiques Roadshow? Since ancient times, maps have included only what was deemed important by the mapmaker, with scads of other stuff left on the cutting-room floor. Now all of it can be stored and accessed, and a map can be customized not just by a cartographer but by you. A map can never fully be the territory it purports to represent, but as layer upon layer of information becomes available, the screen inches ever closer to reality.

We can think of two straightforward tourist-friendly uses for Google Earth: (1) using the mapping features to scope out landmarks before leaving the hotel in the morning and (2) using the community-tagged layers to find restaurants and clubs before leaving the hotel for the evening. And as these platforms move to mobile technologies, "before leaving the hotel" will increasingly become "while randomly walking around."

Tourists won't have to plan where they're going because their cell phones will tell them when they've gotten there.

Instead of the dystopian scenario, where Google Earth causes people to "travel virtually" through their desktop, we'll get the opposite: tourists traveling all over the world and wandering around their destination cities confidently, getting directed to all manner of shiny and interesting things.

What about you? Have Google's mapping technologies changed the way you travel? Tell us in comments below.

Related Stories:
· Google Earth coverage [Jaunted]

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