Title basically. But wondering how they can tell that a particular business is “busy” or not.
In: Technology
Google tracks cellphones constantly and has developed a baseline for how many cellphones in a geographical location regularly broadcast GPS data. When there are more devices broadcasting GPS data than usual, the logical assumption is there are more people there. Thus is unusually busy.
Of course, while that’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, that isn’t *necessarily* true because Google tracks cellphones, not actual people. Several individuals have made videos showing how this works by driving around in a car with a trunk full of functioning cellphones. Google, of course, think each cellphone corresponds to a different individual.
I’ve even heard about one particularly comedic instance where a guy riding a bicycle while playing Pokemon Go with a couple dozen cell phones simultaneously inadvertently caused Google Maps to erroneously report a gridlock because Google Maps thought that each phone was a separate car.
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