eli5: How can Google maps know many small and recent businesses’ locations so accurately?

Question

I’ve realised that most businesses (even small kiosks) are seen on Google maps. Where and how do they get that information?

In: 2928

Answer 1

These days most businesses enter themselves into google maps. It’s really simple and it drives traffic to the store.

Back in the day, these kinds of things were community sourced. If you turn on the option, even today google maps will ask you a bunch of questions about places that you’ve been.