If you want to avoid an extremely crowded place during your night out, then Google’s newest feature is the perfect tool for the situation. The company previously introduced the Popular Times update to their search engine which shows users how crowded a locale is, be it a bar, a restaurant or coffee shop at any time of the week. Google is improving that feature with a real-time tracker so you can avoid wasting precious time waiting for a table.
The Popular Time update was released last year in July. When you look for a restaurant on Google, besides the standard information provided by clicking its title on the search engine or on Google Maps, users were also able to see how busy the restaurant was on a day-by-day basis throughout the week.
The feature was useful when trying to set some plans for the near future while avoiding overcrowded places. However, the feature didn’t provide specific information about the number of people at a specific time. As such, it wasn’t particularly useful when deciding about a place at the last minute.
With their newest improvement to the feature, users are now able to see real-time and specific information about how crowded a place really is at any point during the day and night. This information can be found in the Popular Times widget which appears when you look for a bar or restaurant in either Google Search or Google Maps.
Google is able to provide real-time information about popular places by using anonymous location data as well as searches. Previously, the feature could not predict a surge in clients based on a special event at the locale or anything near it. However, it remained an efficient tool to figure out what are your best chances to avoid crowded times. The real-time data only improves upon this aspect and it will probably benefit busy people who like to schedule every minute of their day the most.
At the time of the writing, the feature is not available yet. However, you can expect it to go live in the next few hours. It’s important to remember to remember that the real-time information will be provided for locales with enough clients who provide Google with the data to establish patterns and a client count.
Image source: Google
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