Google Japan cerebrated the 5th anniversary of Google Maps with bloggers event and the special logo, which may be the first time custom logo for Google Maps.
The event was held at the Roppongi Hills, to where Google Japan moved from Shibuya recently.
At the event, Google Maps developers made presentations how Google Maps team used Tokyo/Japan, one of the most dense megalopolis, as their guinea pig for their new features. For example, the feature to display shop’s photo on the side by the reviews on the searched map, the one to display users photos on the map overlaid and the one you can switch foreign place name in your languages (like showing town names in Paris in Japanese for Japanese users) were firstly introduced in Japan, then applied to other countries.
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
The event’s guest, popular animation director Mamoru Oshii, who is known by “Patlabor” and “Ghost in the Shell“, both of which depicted near-future Tokyo. He talked around time and clock, map, movie, animation, desire for destruction of fictional Tokyo, etc. [J]
photo by a Japanese A-list gadget blogger Masaki Ishitani
Google Japan’s official video of the (part of) anniversary event is on YouTube,
Mamoru Oshii’s session,
See Also
Google Japanese Official Blog [J]
