TechCrunch: “Google — facing increasing competition from other apps like Instagram and TikTok when it comes to consumers searching for things — wants to be the first place people go for discovery and planning pastimes. In aid of that, today the company announced three new features for its star navigation app, Google Maps: aerial and more immersive views of 100 landmarks, more detailed cycling routes, and improved location sharing with notifications for the arrival and departure of your friends. Google Maps has long been adding in more features beyond just giving you the ability to plan how to get from A to B, and even some of the features today are essentially interim steps in longer upgrade strategies. The company first introduced the idea of immersive views at its developer conference Google IO back in May with an aim to creating 3D models of landmarks by using a fusion of Street View, satellite, and aerial images. With that in mind, the company is now rolling out immersive views of more than 100 places situated in cities like Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. But while the feature is currently restricted to landmarks, the company mentioned at Google IO it plans to apply this to restaurants and neighborhoods as well so users can check out how they look before visiting. All of this ties into the firm’s effort to make people use Google Maps as a preferred app for place discover..”