How Google Maps shapes understanding of space and place in a hybrid physical-virtual world?

Keywords: Space and place, Hybrid, GIScience
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Web map services like Google Maps have become a medium for people to understand space and place, like deciding which restaurant to dine in, finding out what’s nearby a place, etc. These web maps are reshaping space and place and having influences on people’s perceptions towards space and place. This paper aims at understanding how space and place are shaped in Google Maps and how we can represent them in GIS so that we can intuitively examine how places like restaurants are presented in the intangible virtual space, and how that affect the chances of a place being found on the online platform.
Based on the space-place framework for GIScience (Shaw & Sui, 2020), we examine Google Maps from four different views of space: mental, relational, relative, and absolute. We present places under these four views in Google Maps with an interactive web app. The interconnected views provide multidimensional insights into how people explore space and place through online platforms. For example, what perceptions of a place are shaped by user comments; how places are associated with each other based on place recommendation; how ambiences of a place are presented on Google Maps; what are the coordinates of POIs. We discuss how Google Maps, and its user communities are collectively shaping people’s understanding of space and place beyond the location in physical space. We also discuss how virtual experiences are intertwined with the physical entities to create a new sense of space and place that are experienced by its users.