Inside Google's Fascinating Stash of 10,000 Indoor Maps

When Google announced it had added 20 additional museums to its indoor mapping service Wednesday, the most interesting part of the story was treated as just a throwaway factoid in the company’s blog post: There are now more than 10,000 indoor maps available to Android device users.

10,000 indoor maps. You can consider this proof positive that Google is making headway in its effort to chart every nook and cranny of navigable terrain, even if this includes carpet and linoleum.

Even more noteworthy: A great many of these floor plans weren’t created in partnership with Google. Instead, they were uploaded by users – business owners and institutional leaders who were motivated to make their properties just a bit more open to all. A steakhouse in Massachusetts. A camera store in New York City. Even the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. More and more pioneering spirits are using Google’s self-service tool to upload their building layouts for everyone to see.

But there’s a caveat: It’s nearly impossible to find most of these indoor maps, unless you happen to stumble upon one during your day-to-day use of the Maps app. Or unless you read Wired.

Google launched its indoor mapping initiative and its Google Maps Floor Plans self-publishing tool in November 2011. But right now, if you look at the Google Maps support site, you'll find a bare-bones list of some 80 available indoor maps inside the United States. This list only includes major museums, airports, and business locations that Google has partnered with.

Much more interesting to Wired are the individual businesses and organizations that have made their own indoor-mapping leaps of faith. We were smitten with the idea that so many people willingly uploaded their floorplans to the mapping database, so we asked Google to share a sampling of user-submitted examples. As you can see from the images above, some of the maps are most noteworthy for their sheer, well, normal-ness. But this, in part, reflects the limitations that Google puts on people who voluntarily opt into the service.

Google requires that users upload floor plans to public buildings – so indoor directions around your palatial, 9,500-square foot mansion are not allowed. Also prohibited: national defense areas, and secret, illegal, or non-factual content. Other than that, any company or organization, no matter how small, can upload content to indoor maps – assuming they own the rights to whatever floorplans they upload, of course.

The University of Pittsburgh, for example, uploaded the four-story floor plan to its main library. "It was just something that we thought would be good to have, to make it easier for students to get around," Crystal McCormick Ware, marketing coordinator for University of Pittsburgh Library Systems, told Wired. "It's a matter of immediacy. We try to make life easier for students."

And then there's the Winnetka Community House, a nonprofit arts and fitness organization on Chicago's north shore. "I just think online maps are helpful," said marketing director Josh Bucher. "Our building is over a century old, so it's a little tough to tell people how to get around from the front desk. It's forward thinking for us."

Now we'd just like Google itself to be a little more forward thinking. Indoor maps are a fantastic step forward in information openness. But currently they're only available to Android users, and not exposed in the browser or iOS mapping apps.
Images: Google