Summary
It’s the go-to navigation programme for millions of users all across the world, but Google Maps appears to have gone down this afternoon.
According to Down Detector, the problems began about 15:44 GMT and are affecting users worldwide.
When MailOnline attempted to access Google Maps on an iPhone, it received the following error message: ‘Maps cannot connect to the internet.’
Furthermore, while the route planner feature seems to be operational on the Google Maps website, the map itself does not appear to be loading.
While the cause of the outage is yet unknown, more than 11,000 reports have been reported on Down Detector.
58% of individuals who reported problems claimed they were having problems with the website, 39% with the app, and 3% were having data troubles.
Google has yet to react to a comment request about the outage.
Many irate customers have resorted to Twitter to vent about the outage.
‘Google Maps being down is a larger disturbance to my day than I would have thought,’ one user tweeted.
‘My life as I know it is finished,’ said another. ‘Google Maps is unavailable.’
One joked, ‘google maps is down, so my commute is utter anarchy right now.’
Google Maps is currently available in over 220 countries and territories, with hundreds of millions of companies and places to choose from.
Its most recent big upgrade occurred in October, when Google provided additional features to assist users in reducing their environmental effect, such as eco-friendly routing, live navigation for bikers, and bike and scooter sharing information.
HOW CAN YOU FIND AND REMOVE WHERE GOOGLE KNOWS YOU’VE BEEN?
Even if you turn off ‘Location History,’ Google frequently records your exact location.
Here’s how to remove those traces, as well as some best practises for keeping your whereabouts as secret as possible.
However, there is no silver bullet because just connecting to the internet on any device generates an IP address that may be geolocated.
Smartphones also link to cell towers, so your carrier is always aware of your general position.
To turn off tracking on any device
Launch your browser and navigate to myactivity.google.com. You must be signed in to Google.
Select ‘Activity Controls’ from the upper left drop-down menu. Turn off ‘Web & App Activity’ as well as ‘Location History.’
This should stop accurate location markers from being saved to your Google account.
Google will tell you that if you turn these settings off, some of its services will not function properly.
Google Assistant, a digital concierge, and the Google Home smart speaker, in particular, will be ineffective.
When using iOS,
If you use Google Maps, set the location to ‘While Using’ the app. This prevents the app from accessing your location while you are not using it.
To make the change, go to Settings Privacy Location Services and then Google Maps.
Consider utilising a search engine other than Google in the Safari web browser.
Other search engines, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo, may be found under Settings Safari Search Engine.
You may disable location when surfing by navigating to Settings Privacy Location Services Safari Websites and selecting ‘Never.’
This will not prevent marketers from determining your approximate location based on your IP address on any website.
You may also disable Location Services on the smartphone nearly entirely by going to Settings Privacy Location Services.
Both Google Maps and Apple Maps will continue to function, but they will have no idea where you are on the map and will be unable to provide you with instructions.
If an emergency situation happens, emergency services will still be able to locate you.
On Android,
go to the main settings icon and choose ‘Security & location.’ Scroll all the way down to the ‘Privacy’ section. Select ‘Location.’ You may disable it for the entire device.
To disable access to specific applications, use ‘App-level permissions.’
Unlike the iPhone, there is no ‘While Using’ option.
You cannot disable Google Play services, which provide your location to other applications if you leave them enabled.
On your Android smartphone, sign in as a ‘guest’ by sliding down from the top and touching the downward-facing cursor, then again on the torso icon.
Keep track of the services you login in to, such as Chrome. Even in Chrome, you can change search engines.
To remove previous location monitoring from any device, follow these steps.
Look for any entry on myactivity.google.com that includes a location pin icon beneath the term ‘details.’
When you click on it, a window appears with a link that occasionally states ‘From your present location.’
By clicking on it, you will be sent to Google Maps, which will show you where you were at the moment.
You may remove it from this popup by selecting the three-dot navigation symbol and then ‘Delete.’
Some objects, such as topic names, google.com, Search, or Maps, will be clustered in unexpected locations.
You must erase them one by one. You can delete all things in date ranges or by service at once, but you’ll wind up removing more than simply location markers.