There are many reasons why you might want to track some of the locations you visit in Google Maps, but maybe not all of them. You might not want your friends and loved ones (with access to your phone or account) to know you hit up the local dispensary. Perhaps you’re planning a surprise party for someone and need to visit the venue a few times to prepare. You could also be paranoid about location-tracking; that’s fine, too.

Despite all the convenience and quality of Google’s sprawling ecosystem, some users are fed up with its often fishy privacy policies and wary of its looming shadow over the internet at large.

If you’re ready to ditch Google, or even just reduce its presence in your digital life, this guide is here to help.

iOS users who prefer Google Maps over Apple’s Maps app or even Waze will finally have access to one of the best features from the Android version: the ability to submit live traffic reports.

Google recently announced a few new features that give users more control over their data, including three new privacy options for Google Maps, YouTube and Google Assistant, as well as a new tool for monitoring password security. Here’s a quick rundown of each of the new features, how to find them, and why you may want to try them out.

Google is slowly closing the feature gap between Google Maps’ mobile and desktop versions, and a recent update finally made it as easy to play around with Street View on the Android app as it is on a computer. Here's how to enable the new layer.

Google has quietly updated the Google Maps Android app with Google Street View integration. The new interactive layer makes it a lot easier to access panoramas of compatible streets on your smartphone. Here's how to get your hands on the completely redesigned interface.

Does your neighbourhood have strange joke listings on Google Maps? Are you living next to a Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Fake Google Maps locations are surprisingly common, and these fictional locations and pop-cultural references can even come with highly detailed (false) information, such as descriptions, photos, reviews and contact info.

If you’re directionally or spatially challenged, Google Maps just launched a feature that will (literally) point you in the right direction.

Earlier this year Google announced Live View, an augmented reality version of walking directions for Google Maps that allows you to see directions overlayed the world around you. So rather than trying to decide “Is it asking me to go down this street or the other one?” you’ll see an arrow literally on that street you’re trying to go down.

If you travel to any major city, and even some of the smaller ones, you’ll probably run into some sort of bike-sharing opportunity.

Plenty of us rely on public transportation, but there are times when your local transit system is anything but reliable.

The next time you go to order pizza, or call someone to repair an appliance, make sure you aren’t getting scammed by a representative of a business that doesn’t actually exist.

Thanks to Google Assistant, you’ll never lose your car in the parking lot again — but you shouldn’t be losing it anyway, as you’ll get better accuracy if you remember to tell your smartphone where your parking spot is before you leave your car.

Google Maps can already route you around traffic and road closures, but now it will also be able to help you steer clear of areas affected by natural disasters.

Google Maps has expanded its traffic features in Australia. The app will now display the speed limit for roads you’re currently on, as well as the location of various key pieces of traffic information — including mobile speed trackers and traffic cameras. Here's how to access the new features.

Google’s aptly named AI helper, Google Assistant, is poised to have a great year in 2019. Not only will the digital assistant be spreading to numerous devices old and new, but there are a host of new features coming, too, several of which were shown off at CES the week before last.

If you’ve ever wandered around a parking garage with your keys in the air, repeatedly hitting the lock/unlock button, not sure whether you’re even on the correct floor, it’s time to start saving your parking location.

Google's latest addition to its Maps app lets you superimpose walking directions onto your view of the real world, using your phone's camera and augmented reality to show exactly where you need to go and when you need to turn. We just spent some time with the preview version and were left mightily impressed - in short, it makes walking directions foolproof.

I didn’t expect Google to go soaring out of the gate soon soon after the company teased its augmented reality ambitions for Google Maps at yesterday’s I/O 2019 keynote, but here we go. Starting today, an unknown number of Android aficionados are getting access to an early preview of Google’s new “AR navigation experience,” as the company calls it.