Google announced Thursday an addition of 25 million new building footprints to its Google Maps across major metropolitan regions in the U.S. that include Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
"As we go about our daily travels, we often rely on buildings to orient ourselves, locate landmarks and navigate from place to place. So today, we're expanding the coverage of building footprints that are already available in Google Maps," Bobby Parikh, Google Maps Engineering Manager, wrote in a blog post. "This expansion is part of our ongoing effort to provide you with maps that are as comprehensive as possible."
The new update adds to streets, parks and water bodies that already exist in Google Maps. These footprints come with height information that has been created through aerial imagery and computer vision techniques.
Google said that this allows them to provide a "more comprehensive and detailed map than ever before."
Google Maps was shown the door by Apple when it launched its iPhone 5 and iOS 6 update, an action which drew heavy fire from users and analysts alike. Added to this, Apple's "Maps" app had inaccuracies, showing weird maps and giving wrong directions.
Following the incident, Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, apologized for his company's mistake and asked users to use Google or Nokia maps via mobile Web browser.
In an interview last week in New York, Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters, "Apple has learned that maps are hard... We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in satellite work, airplane work, drive-by work, and we think we have the best product in the industry." He also added that Google spent five years investing on its maps app, emphasizing its superiority over Apple's "Maps" venture, which is new to the market yet.
Google also gives the users the option to correct and update the maps through Google Map Maker.
