[MUSIC PLAYING]
JACQUELINE RAJUAI: Hi, everyone.
I'm Jackie Rajuai, the go-to-markets lead
for Plus Codes.
Today we're going to talk about what's
new with Plus Codes since the summit last year.
But before we delve into that, here's
a quick refresher on what Plus Codes are.
So Plus Codes are an open-source digital addressing solution
based on latitudes and longitudes
that are built by Google.
And they exist for any location, even where there are no roads.
And they are independent of any language.
Last year, we talked about a few flagship projects in Kolkata
with Addressing the Unaddressed, in the Navajo
territory with the Rural Utah Project,
in Mogadishu with the IRC, and with the Sao Paulo State.
The landscape since then has grown,
and we're excited to highlight more projects
across multiple geographies and continents.
Let's begin with The Gambia, which is
in the western part of Africa.
The Gambian government, in partnership with Google,
is looking to use Plus Codes as an addressing system
nationally.
At this moment, they have completed
addressing the capital, which is Banjul,
and Kanifing, which is the commercial capital.
Coming over to Kenya, which is the eastern part of Africa,
the county governments of Kisumu and Vihiga
have partnered with Google also to deploy Plus Codes.
And addressing has just kicked off in Kisumu,
and they're excited to see how the progress grows.
Going over to the southern part of Africa, in South Africa,
we have partnered with a nonprofit organization called
PlanAct, who have adopted Plus Codes as an addressing solution
for Skoonplaas, which is an informal settlement in Gauteng
Province.
Going over to India, we are working
with Shelter Associates, who are also
a nonprofit, who are deploying Plus Codes as a solution in one
of their informal settlements in Maharashtra states.
And lastly, we have Sao Paulo State government.
Last year when we presented, we had announced our partnership
where the state was intending to use Plus Code
addresses for hundreds of thousands
of rural households in the state.
Since then, the state has-- they have since
assigned thousands of Plus Code addresses
to their different rural households.
During the previous summit, we also
mentioned tools that we were testing
with some of our partners.
And in this case, we were trying to pilot scaled addressing.
And we are very excited that since then this tool set
is now public and is also known as Address Maker.
Address Maker is a free tool that
makes it significantly easier to create Plus Codes at scale.
We originally developed it with the NGO
Addressing the Unaddressed.
And since then, we have [INAUDIBLE]
with multiple different partners around the world.
It includes a web console for administrators and an Android
app for field operators, taking them through the entire project
lifecycle, from assigning addresses, adding missing
routes, installing address codes,
and quality checking along the way.
Now administrators of these projects
can manage their own project [INAUDIBLE]
Google involvement in their day-to-day activities.
Address Maker is available through a trusted tester
program, and we are also taking in more partners who may be
interested in working with us.
And now here's a video showcasing
some of the projects taking place
in Sub-Saharan Africa using Address Maker, after which
my colleague Amanda will talk about Plus Codes in our Maps
and also in our APIs.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PETER ANYANG NYONGO: The traditional way
of describing a place to somebody
who wants to come to your house is you say,
when you reach that corner, you see a tree.
ABDOULIE KRUBALLY: Stop at the arch.
SALIFU TRAWALLY: I think you should move this way.
PETER ANYANG NYONGO: And then when you go farther,
there's a woman selling bananas and another tree.
SALIFU TRAWALLY: No, go back.
ABDOULIE KRUBALLY: Come to the next junction.
SALIFU TRAWALLY: Left, right, left, right.
ABDOULIE KRUBALLY: Turn to your right.
Turn to your left.
SALIFU TRAWALLY: Destination is on your right.
[HORN HONKS]
PETER ANYANG NYONGO: So it's a very poor way
of trying to reach where you are going.
It's very difficult.
EBRIMA SILLAH: The Gambia is located
along the West Coast of Africa.
Our agenda is to use the Plus Code system across the country
to help spur economic development
and also transform the way we do businesses and the way
we deliver services.
Until recently, there was no addressing system
in the country.
And this was extremely very frustrating to know
where to deliver specific goods on time
with efficiency and speed.
So the role that Google Plus Code will play in The Gambia
cannot be overemphasized.
We have finalized the implementation of the project
in the capital city, Banjul, and the program
has brought in great dividend.
ROHEY MALICK LOWE: Plus Code, yeah, digital addresses
that will simply able one to found address even
with Google and so.
The importance of Plus Code is really too much.
The ambulance services, for example, the ambulance
now can easily locate someone in Banjul.
And Banjulians now can have the Plus Codes
when they deal with ecommerce.
So government is benefiting.
The people are benefiting.
And we are happy.
ABDOULIE KRUBALLY: Now, for me, it's not very, very difficult
for us to maneuver around Banjul.
My brother came from the US, so he came to visit me.
So I gave him the Google Plus address,
and he used the Google Plus address to come to my house
without any disturbance, without any distractions.
And also, I have a delivery that they deliver to my house that
before I cannot do.
Because before, if I have anything that comes,
I have to go myself to pick it.
But I am able to do it now.
It makes business easy.
It makes movements easy.
And people should try and use it because it's very convenient.
ROHEY MALICK LOWE: But it should not stop in Banjul.
I want to see Plus Codes all over The Gambia.
LAMIN BADJIE: Kanifing Municipal Council
is one of the biggest municipality in The Gambia.
Almost everybody in this country do business here in KMC.
And Plus Codes will bring a lot of improvement, especially when
it comes to business.
It will make your business very visible.
We have a team of 52, and they are working in pairs.
Each team will have measuring device,
a mobile phone which GPS.
The guy with the device will use the Plus Code numbers.
All the compounds will have numbers.
[HORN HONKING]
SALIFU TRAWALLY: Of course, it is very, very difficult
to find places without address.
So in [INAUDIBLE] Plus Codes, you
can look at a place instant.
Plus Codes is always helpful.
And in the Google Map, then it will tell me direction.
So I think that is very nice and then very simple
to make our job easier and then quicker.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PETER ANYANG NYONGO: The smart city of the future
must embrace technology in all aspects of life.
That is why we need Plus Codes in a city like Kisumu,
because the trail of history has shown that technology
has been the biggest prime mover of changes in the world
as we go and making the problem solvable in a much faster
and easier time than before.
EBRIMA SILLAH: This is going to extremely transform
Africa and The Gambia.
Every country can benefit from this very important technology.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMANDA BISHOP: Thanks, Raj.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Amanda, the product manager for the Plus Codes team.
Now I'm going to show you some changes we've
made in the last year to how you can use
Plus Codes in Google products.
So there are millions of places on Google Maps that
have unspecific addresses.
So this could be just the city name or a road name
in a city but no road number.
So we started enhancing those with the Plus Code
that represents the pin location that we
have for that particular place, as you can see in this example
here.
Notice the Plus Code is in the address, not a separate Plus
Code field.
And when a user searches for that Plus Code,
Maps returns the place as the result.
We've done this with about 22 million places so far
with lots more to come soon.
This next one is an improvement to our Maps Reverse Geocoding
API, which tries to find a place or a road name
near a lat-long or a spot where users drop a pin.
And in the past, we'd expand our search quite far
to find a road or place name, but we'd
end up with one that isn't very close to the actual point.
But now if we don't find something close by,
we'll return the Plus Code for that specific spot
instead, like you see here.
OK, this next one is just a minor update to the screen
that users see on Android Maps after they tap the blue dot.
It'll be rolling out on iOS soon as well.
And in some cases, you'll need to scroll this page
to see the Plus Code module, which
sits at the bottom of the Your Location page.
All right, and this is my last one that I have to show you.
It's a new experiment that we're really excited about that
makes it super easy to find the Plus Code address for your home
and save it to Maps.
It uses your device's current location,
and it'll only return the address
if the location accuracy of your device is good enough.
The address gets saved in your Maps profile,
and your name and identity are never shared.
All right, that wraps up my updates for today.
So, Raj, back over to you.
JACQUELINE RAJUAI: Thanks, Amanda.
Now, for a more in-depth look at Plus Codes scaled addressing,
do sign up for the social inclusion
track that's taking place on the 18th of November.
Thanks for joining us, and enjoy the Geo for Good Summit.
[MUSIC PLAYING]