Google Maps expands ‘Explore around you’ to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, & Japan

Google Maps is expanding its ‘Explore around you’ feature to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Japan. The tool helps users find places to grab a meal or drink based on location and lists them as pre-made categories.

Users and tourists to those countries should see a new ‘Explore food & drinks near you’ tab at the bottom of Maps. Tapping it will slide up a search bar to switch locations and list tabs for breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner and drinks. Under those categories are lists like best lunches and vegetarian-friendly spots. Tapping it will take users to a map and card interface that has pictures, Google Maps reviews, and other descriptions.

Tapping on any one of those cards will bring up the usual Google Maps listing. The explore feature has been available in the US and UK since last year. Recent updates to the Google Maps app finally displayed images within user reviews and over the holidays introduced a new feature that shows what time a store is busy by using aggregated location data.