Popular times now includes live visit data

Colan Nielsen · Nov 21, 2016

This is a nifty little update. Is anyone seeing this live in the wild?

Popular times now includes live visit data for eligible businesses, showing customers how busy a location is right now.
11/21/2016

https://support.google.com/business/answer/6262887?hl=en

JoyHawkins · Nov 22, 2016

Yep, here are some screenshots. So cool.

Linda Buquet · Nov 22, 2016

Thanks Colan!

I noticed it a couple days ago when I was shopping for a groomer for my puppy.

"showing customers how busy a location is right now."

To see how well it works we can just check ToysRus or Walmart on Black Friday.

Margaret Ornsby · Nov 22, 2016

FYI I think this is global. Seeing it here in Australia and often we're the last to see roll-outs.
Still must be semi-beta as they provide a feedback link so viewers can report whether the live info is wonky or good.

Here's one where the live data shows a significant difference to the standard traffic pattern

<a href="http://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/c2e977c5-1ab8-4d29-8512-ab4eeaa4affb/2016-11-23_12-39-15.png"><img class="embeddedObject" src="http://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/c2e977c5-1ab8-4d29-8512-ab4eeaa4affb/2016-11-23_12-39-15.png" width="389" height="641" border="0" /></a>

Colan Nielsen · Nov 22, 2016

Good to know. Thanks Margaret!

JoshuaMackens · Dec 6, 2016

How are they doing this? Tracking smartphones?

Edit: answered my own question:

"To determine popular times and visit duration, Google uses aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted in to Google Location History."

https://support.google.com/business/answer/6263531

Margaret Ornsby · Dec 6, 2016

Hi Josh
Yes, the answer is there in your quote. Opted in to G location history.
That's avail on android, iphone, ipad AFAIK.
https://support.google.com/accounts/topic/7189122

It's not going to be counting every person in the location. Given the penetration of those devices in the market, it's very likely representing a majority of people a majority of the time.

Caleb · Dec 8, 2016

The morning of BF I sent a screenshot of the live popular times to our Directory of Advertising. I soon had a knock on my door from one of the Executives asking for me to screenshot our stores and competitors stores every hour... they were really excited about it.

Sharing is often an error in judgement.

Popular times now includes live visit data

Colan Nielsen

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