Google Maps turns 20: A look at all our favourite places to visit

It’s been 20 years this week since Google Maps was launched, doing away with the good old Refidex, Gregory’s and securing an almost permanent  place on our smart phone.

Born in an apartment in Hunters Hill in Sydney, Google Maps was a breakthrough at the time, bringing a better understanding of our towns, cities and more importantly the world to our screens. 

The bare bones offering was still a revelation, however the launch on mobile in 2006 brought the all important feature – turn-by-turn Navigation, and we’ve seen more ways to navigate introduced including the addition of transit information, and even Augmented Reality directions to show you where to go. 

Google has continuously added new features to improve the ways we navigate. Features  including Satellite and Street View added new layers, and we’ve seen more ways to use maps including to track bushfires and check air quality.

After 20 years of use, Google Maps has a lot of interesting stats, including:

• 100 million: the number of updates made to the map each day. That means that in the time it took to read this sentence, the map was updated 10,000 times!
• 250 million: the number of businesses and places on the map. If you were to visit one of these places every hour without sleeping, it would take you more than 28,500 years to get through this list!
• 500 million: the number of users who contribute information like reviews, photos, ratings and driving disruptions to the map per year. A vertical stack of 500 million pieces of paper would be 50km high! 
• 1 trillion: how many kilometres of directions we provided in 2024. This is the distance of Earth orbiting the sun over one thousand times!

A feature of Maps which is underutilised is the Local Guides program, which lets anyone add places. This includes businesses, points of interest and more. These additions include helpful information like opening hours, menus, as well as more personal opinions with reviews, photos and more. 

This program has filled out Google Maps with a plethora of information which we use every day. To celebrate these additions, Google is highlighting the local stars of Google Maps. 

Google says the Dosa Hut Indian Restaurant, Harris Park is the most reviewed restaurant on Maps with 14.4K reviews and an average  4.61 average rating, while the Andonis Cafe & Bar in Yeerongpilly, QLD is the most reviewed cafe with 8.2K reviews and an average rating of 4.68 average rating.

Now we all like to review a restaurant or cafe, but what else can you review? The most reviewed Fish and Chips Shop is Charis Seafoods in Labrador, QLD, while the Cow & The Moon in Enmore is the most reviewed Ice-Cream shop.

Feeling like a little recycling or upcycling? You can find the most reviewed thrift shop (Savers in Brunswick, VIC), the most reviewed Vintage Clothing Shop, Retropolis in Preston, VIC or even give your local recycling centre some love with Metal Biz Recyclers in Rocklea, QLD the most reviewed – shout out to my local Return and Earn!