Malls

The Mall of America in Minnesota has 4.2m sq ft of retail. Whatever you think about technology, finding stores and getting around is undoubtedly a challenge for shoppers and helping them a priority for management. Indoor Google Maps will surely see much expansion here. 

WiFi signals can be used with indoor maps to locate users a lot more accurately than the cellular network. If marketers in retail want to start targeted mall visitors based on their location (see this brilliant Meat Pack example in this post) then WiFi is also imperative. 

Schools and colleges

When was the last time you were lost in a building? It was probably a big public building and was probably a school or college. The ones with meaningless numbered rooms that seem to bear no relation to each other. Finding your way round is trial and error.

Google Maps seems like a good idea here, and indeed, Mission College in Santa Clara has implemented them. 

Indoor Google Maps users to see the floor plans, get indoor walking directions, as well as switch between floors.

Users can opt-in to the My Location feature to turn on the “blue dot” icon locating their position on the map, to within a few meters.

Exhibition and convention centres

As one employee puts it at the Las Vegas Convention Center:

Finding your way is always an issue. We named the buildings North, Central, and South. [Visitors] get off of an international flight and have no idea what ‘north’ or ‘south’ is…It’s confusing.

Big spaces, disoriented international clientele. Of course they need some help.

As smartphones become ever more prolific and ever less alien across audiences, Indoor Google Maps will likely be used more and more.

When lost, looking down will be the new looking up.