When you are in a new place in a little while, you start to memorize particular places around, and you begin to understand where things are in relation to each other. You don*#8217;t need a map anymore; you have a good feeling about your whereabouts. This process is called cognitive mapping, which is precisely what it sounds like: your mental model of a particular geography.
People naturally use cognitive maps, when giving directions. GPS navigation will tell you: *#8220;in 600 meters turn left*#8221;. A person will tell you: *#8220;take the first left behind the Marriott hotel.*#8221; When you want to meet with a friend, you will tell him over the phone *#8220;let*#8217;s meet in front of that vegan place, where we had that amazing pad thai last month*#8221; rather than *#8220;let*#8217;s meet at 40.716962, -73.991392*#8221;. Our brains perceive geography in the form of memories, distinctive landmarks,*and shared experiences rather than coordinate systems.
With that in mind making more human navigation interactions based on elements of cognitive mapping has been a holy grail for all mature GPS navigation providers. Implementing such a solution is however extremely challenging. You need to code and decode a cognitive*understanding of geographic space in the same way that humans do. From a geographic database perspective, such a data would have to be created by people who understand local area very well and updated very quickly. There is only one mapping company that has a potential to do that *#8211; Google.
Google has enough data to understand our experiences and memories related to particular places. All of this data could be used to translate our personal cognitive maps into a data layer that Google would use to make Maps more personal. We are not yet there, but the company has recently started to experiment with a similar approach. Multiple users have been reporting that Google Maps has begun offering directions based on local landmarks:
So @googlemaps instructed me to “turn right after Burger King” *#8230; I think this is the best update yet. #mindblown
— Deemah MS (@iamdeemah) April 14, 2018
Google is making Maps more and more personal for the past few years. It already knows your*POI preferences, it shows your*hotel reservations and traffic to our*common destination based on our mobility patterns. Connecting it to our cognitive understanding of geographic space would be a natural step forward.— Deemah MS (@iamdeemah) April 14, 2018
There is, however, a certain catch. Google is not a charity organization. It spends billions of dollars annually to offer us Maps for free, but at the same time, it*#8217;s the largest advertising company in the world. Combining our mental maps with location-based advertising might be tempting. In fact, it seems that this scenario*is also being tested in parallel:
This didn*#8217;t work well for me recently, since the pizza joint was inside a gas station.. It just added some confusion..
— Scott Howell (@howellsh) April 19, 2018
At this stage, we don*#8217;t know if this is a small scale test or a broader initiative. It shows however what we might expect in the upcoming months. It also shows that Google is far before it*#8217;s competitors in the GPS navigation market.— Scott Howell (@howellsh) April 19, 2018
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