Google Maps app for iOS was to display the information about the estimated workload of the institutions on the basis of data from map service. The respective functionality appeared in patch 4.13.
For some places on Google Maps began to display not only time, but also schedule workload by day of week, and hour. For example, you can see that the restaurant is open until 23:00, but the number of people visiting it drops sharply in the last hour of work. Data is taken from Google Maps.
According to the developers, the feature will help avoid standing in line, and tell me, at what time, for example, it is better to book a table. Users will be easier to plan your visits to a particular location, say in Google.
The system works the same way as the service of collecting data about traffic jams. Extrapolating anonymous information about a user’s location Google Maps (only those who gave consent to send data) to the surrounding establishments, the company obtains the sample data about their workload.
Google did not specify exactly where available. However, the search for Russian institutions shows that popular places like cafes and major shopping centres time data are also shown.
A similar feature long before Google was introduced in the recommendation service Foursquare venues. Unlike Google, Foursquare and Swarm child service users clearly mark its location, but to determine the workload used aggregated data about check-ins and location with GPS.
However, in Foursquare the thus obtained information not to alert queues, and to specify the time of the institution. If a restaurant or the Mall by themselves indicate the exact hours of operation, these data are not displayed.
