Twenty years ago, Google Maps started helping us explore the world, navigate unfamiliar roads and discover hidden gems. As Google Maps turns 20 they wanted to share some of the best features and hacks along with some of the most-reviewed places from the past two decades in Ireland.
Ireland’s crowd-pleasers: The most-reviewed destinations
Visitor attractions
Parks
Museums
Here are just a few mind-blowing stats about Maps:
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1 trillion: how many kilometers of directions they provided in 2024. This is the distance of Earth orbiting the sun over one thousand times!
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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!
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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!
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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!
Today Google Maps is sharing some of the most popular and all-time favorite features — along with helpful hidden gems that might have been missed over the years.
1. Drive in style (new!)
Now when driving with Google Maps, the navigation icon is customisable with new car types and colors. Depending on your mood, choose a powerful pickup truck, a stylish SUV, a roaring racecar and more in eight vibrant colors. Just start navigating, tap on the blue arrow and let your creativity lead the way.
2. Get menu highlights
When checking out a new restaurant, use Maps to quickly understand its most popular dishes in advance. Search for a restaurant and scroll down to “menu highlights” — photos and reviews of top dishes from the Maps community will be visible to help people tap into their inner foodie and order with confidence.
3. Understand an area at a glance with AR
It can be tough to get your bearings if you’re in a new neighborhood. With Lens in Maps, tap the camera icon in the search bar and lift your phone to let augmented reality instantly overlay helpful information, like the name of a place, how busy it is and if it’s highly rated.
4. See HOV lanes along your route
Headed somewhere new and want to save time? Just get directions to your destination and quickly see if there are HOV lanes along your route so you can get there as efficiently as possible.
5. Time travel with Street View
Go back in time with Street View! See loved ones and even check out a childhood home: Open Google Maps and turn on the Street View layer. Search a home address, tap “See more dates” and scroll through the images to watch your neighborhood evolve over time!
6. Make reservations right from Maps
Forget frantic phone calls or scrambling for last-minute reservations: Google Maps can help you snag a table at your favorite restaurant. Search for the restaurant, and if it works with a booking partner, tap on “Reserve” to book your reservation.
7. Plan group hangouts with lists
Lists in Google Maps make it a breeze to save and share places you want to visit – and they also make it easy for groups to pick a spot. The next time you have an outing planned, create a collaborative list where everyone can save places and vote on them with emoji so you can make a quick decision on where to go.
8. Arrive with confidence
It can be tough to find the right entrance at a large apartment complex or unfamiliar building. With arrival guidance, Maps will highlight the entrance, show nearby parking lots and remind you to save your parking spot. Once parked, you can get walking directions from the car to the entrance — and even enter Street View or AR walking navigation to orient yourself quickly.
9. Know before you go
With Immersive View, you can experience what stadiums, parks and routes look like and even check the weather and traffic so you can be ready in advance. When driving, see where the nearest parking is and if there are any tight turns on your route.
10. Send your trip from your phone to your car
If you’re in a rush, you can plan your trip from your phone and send it straight to your car if it has Google built-in. No need to waste time re-entering the address.
11. Find the hottest restaurants in town
Whether you’re exploring a new city or rediscovering your neighborhood, Google Maps’ restaurant lists can help you find the perfect spot. Check out our trending list 
to find places that have recently surged in popularity, the top list 
for tried-and-true favorites and the gems list 
to find the next hot spot before everyone else does.
12. Avoid the crowds
It’s helpful to know how busy a place will be before you get there so you can save time and avoid long lines. Search for a place and scroll down to “Popular times” — you’ll see a graph of how busy it typically is, and even how busy it is at that moment. New efficiency hack unlocked!
13. Don’t get lost — even when you’re off the grid
When exploring a new city or when in an area with bad signal, you can use Google Maps offline to access essential navigation information. Search for an area, tap the name or address and select “Download” to give yourself access to navigation and key details without a connection. Perfect for travel and adventures off the beaten path.
14. Get accessibility information anywhere
For those with accessibility needs, turn on “Accessible Places” in settings and a wheelchair icon will show if a place has accessible entrances, seating, restrooms and parking. Those with visual impairments can get detailed voice guidance while walking, with helpful alerts about routes, upcoming turns and nearby intersections.
15. Save money and petrol
Lots of people want ways to get around more sustainably. Fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps can help — it uses AI to show the most fuel- or energy-efficient route to your destination, if it’s not already the fastest one. Just pull up directions and tap on the route with the green leaf.
16. Have fun with Pegman!
Pegman is the beloved Street View mascot, and depending on where in the world you’re browsing, he might transform into someone new! Hint: Check out Loch Ness, Scotland for a fun surprise!