The tale of the Dutch bookstore, the pivot and the Golden Pin

Bookstore Dominicanen can be found in a former Dominican church in the city of Maastricht, a thriving cultural hub and one of the oldest cities in The Netherlands. Before COVID, the bookstore welcomed almost one million visitors a year. They mostly relied on customers visiting in person to shop for a good read or to enjoy a coffee while admiring the store’s vault paintings and the unique 14th century fresco depicting scenes from Thomas Aquinas’ life. And then the pandemic hit.   The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on businesses worldwide but it also sparked creativity and accelerated many businesses’ use of digital tools. In The Netherlands for example, 81% of Dutch SMEs made more use of digital…

Finding belonging in Google’s Aboriginal and Indigenous Network

In 2013, the Google Earth Outreach team reached out to me with a request. They had been invited to partner on a mapping project in western Canada, and were looking for a Googler who could contribute an Indigenous perspective on cultural protocol. They asked if I would  be interested in helping. “Absolutely!” was my immediate response. I’m  Kanien’kehá ka, (Mohawk) and there have been times in my life and my workplace where it felt like there wasn’t space for me to be Indigenous. This was a great opportunity to lean in. There was also pressure: I could bring my perspective from my community but Indigenous communities are incredibly diverse. I hoped my Indigenous Studies degree would help me. But the…

Discover and Support Local Bookstores with Google Maps

Today is National Book Lovers’ Day in the U.S. Since we’ll take any excuse to celebrate our love of the written word, we’ve pulled together top U.S. trends from Search and Maps for our fellow bibliophiles out there, along with tips to hunt down local bookstores that are worth, well, bookmarking. 🔖 Page-turning book trends  Searching with more than the Dewey Decimal system: So far this year we’ve seen millions of book-related searches on Google Maps — with searches peaking on July 11 when they were up 111% from the same day in 2020. Beach reads anyone? Sweet escape: This year, we’ve been looking to books to transport us to another time, place and world. The top five genres on…

From widgets to dark mode: 3 updates to Google Maps on iOS

Chocolate or vanilla. 🍦 Crunchy peanut butter or smooth. Androids or iPhones. No matter what your (device) preferences are, Google Maps is here to help you navigate, explore, and get things done as easily as possible. Today, we’re rolling out three new ways to more conveniently access Google Maps’ information about the world right from your iPhone. And while we’re at it, our Googlers are sharing handy tricks you might have forgotten you could do on iOS. 😉 Share your live location right from iMessage If you’re meeting up with friends or family, you can now share your real-time location while you’re texting so you can stay safe and never miss a beat. Just tap on the Google Maps button…