• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Skip to navigation
Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Connect
    • Custom Events
    • Slack
    • RSS
    • Send us a Tip
  • Advertise
  • Consulting
  • About
The Spoon
  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • About

Is Google Maps Adding Food Identification and Ratings?

by Chris Albrecht
May 22, 2018May 22, 2018Filed under:
  • Business of Food
  • Education & Discovery
  • Robotics, AI & Data
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

If you’re the type who takes pictures of your food and uploads them while still at the restaurant, you may soon be getting prompted by Google Maps to identify and rate your meal, according to a story from Ausdroid.

The publication’s description is vague: “When you add a new photo, Maps will ask you to name the dish and present you with a fairly comprehensive list of meals as autocomplete options.” Adding the new photo to what, it isn’t entirely clear.

However, their post does have screenshots showing a picture of a food item which, from the looks of it, has been identified by Google as taken near a restaurant. Google then goes on to ask what the menu item is, as well as your thumbs up or down on that particular dish.

We’ve sent a note to Google asking them to confirm Ausdroid’s report, and will update this story as we hear more.

As Ausdroid writes, on its face, this is another vector for Google to gather information on you to provide better recommendations. In addition to wait times at a particular restaurant, it could also tell you which specific dishes are popular.

This is in line with news out of the recent Google I/O conference, where it was announced that Google Maps will soon be providing users with a host of new features, including a personalized match score for restaurants. A Google rep told Travel + Leisure that the score indicates “how likely you are to enjoy a food or drink spot based on your unique preferences.”

But, as is often the case with Google, there is a larger data play here for the company. Having potentially millions of food images properly labeled is immensely useful for Google’s AI and machine learning algorithms. Additionally, having pictures taken under all sorts of conditions (different angles, poorly lit, etc.) and then labeled also helps Google better understand the real world better.

Restaurants seem to be of particular interest for Google. At that same I/O conference, the company trotted out a demo of its human-sounding virtual assistant, Duplex, which supposedly is able to make restaurant reservations on your behalf (though doubts about its full capabilities have arisen). Everyone eats, so there are ample opportunities for data collection, and restaurants can be at the center for a number of Google products: Maps, Calendars, Email, Chat, site hosting/web page creation.

Have you seen this ratings feature in the wild? If so, send us a screenshot!


Related

Google Maps Adds Popular Dish Feature to Surface Favorite Meals at Restaurants

Google Maps has always helped navigate you to a nearby restaurant, but with a new feature launched today, Maps will help you navigate that restaurant's menu by surfacing its most popular dishes. The popular dishes feature uses machine learning to parse through photos and reviews of dishes posted by Google…

Google Lens Could Make the Restaurant Experience Super Convenient — or Super Predictable

Yesterday at its I/O conference, Google announced new features to Google Lens, its image-recognition app for Android, and they’re all about improving the restaurant experience for customers. Google Lens uses machine learning, computer vision, and a whole lot of data to interact with the world around you and answer your…

Amazon May Grab Food Tech Headlines, but You Should Be Paying More Attention to Google

Amazon grabs a lot of attention when it comes to food tech. And rightly so, as the company bought Whole Foods, offers grocery delivery, is revolutionizing convenience stores, and so much more. But perhaps it should be its rival, Google, that we pay more attention to. Google may not immediately…

Get the Spoon in your inbox

Just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest:

Find us on some of these other platforms:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
Tagged:
  • Google
  • Google Maps

Post navigation

Previous Post Ovie Launches Kickstarter Campaign to Help Fend Off Food Waste
Next Post Aeropowder Turns Feather Waste into Biodegradable Food Insulation

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Get The Spoon in Your Inbox

The Spoon Podcast Network!

Feed your mind! Subscribe to one of our podcasts!

Thermomix Has Long Been a Leader in Cooking Automation, But Now They’re Going Full Robot
Is IFT’s Launch of an AI Tool For Food Scientists an Indicator of Where Trade Associations Are Going in Age of AI?
From Red Bull to Zevia, Amy Taylor Shares Lessons Learned From a Career Built Around Buzzy Beverages
Study: AI-Powered Drones Fuel Advances in Precision Ag for Early Detection of Crop Stress
Could Lasers Made From Olive Oil Be The Next-Gen Freshness Detector or Use-By Label?

Footer

  • About
  • Sponsor the Spoon
  • The Spoon Events
  • Spoon Plus

© 2016–2025 The Spoon. All rights reserved.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.