Google Maps just made holiday shopping way less stressful

Key Takeaways

Google Maps has added a new nearby products tab to help you shop during the holidays.
You can quickly find nearby items with prices and store stock status.
New navigation features are also available on Google Maps, including weather reports and Gemini AI integration.

Google Maps is one of the most reliable navigation apps out there. It’s saved me countless times on many road trips, and recently it’s been enhanced with new AI features. But now Google Maps can also help you with your shopping.

Google Maps has added new travel and shopping features to help users find local products during the busy holiday season. For example, if you’re shopping for a new sweater, you can search for a sweater in Google Maps, and it will show you different sweaters in stock at nearby stores. The feature has begun to roll out today.

Google Maps

Google Maps is a navigation app aimed at helping you get from Point A to Point B the fastest and smoothest way possible.

OS: iOS, Android
Brand: Google
Price: Free

Change this Google Maps setting now so you don’t get lost on the way to Grandma’s

PSA: Google will soon delete your location history from the cloud, but there’s a way to save it before it’s gone.

Find what you’re looking for quickly on the go

Google / Pocket-lint

Shopping on Google Maps is really easy. Just open the app, and type whatever you’re looking for in the search bar and results will then come up based on your location and nearby products available. In the new “Products nearby” tab you’ll see a picture of the item, its price, its stock status, and how far away it is from you. The product information is presented in a similar way to Google Shopping.

Whether it’s a new pickleball racket, coffee maker or sunglasses, Google Maps will help you find it, and you can quickly add it to your route. I can see this being especially useful during the holidays if you’re traveling somewhere you’re not familiar with and need to find something quickly. Though the feature is probably just a way for Google to further drive sales traffic for sponsors, as when I search for products, sponsored stores pop up first.

In addition to helping you shop, Google Maps has added new navigation features to help you plan and prepare your drive. For example, you can now report weather disruptions like flooded roads or unplowed snow. Gemini has also recently been integrated with Google Maps, so users can use AI to quickly find out about places you’re going.