Google Maps Might Soon Turn Into A Social Platform

Google will shut down Panoramio on November 4, the location-centric photo-sharing service the company acquired in 2007. It also added that Panoramio will be a redundant platform since its functions are already being provided by Google Maps and the company’s Local Guides program.

Reports claim that the announcement is just the latest effort by the company to position Maps as a social platform and primary discovery tool, thereby making it more appealing to advertisers and marketers.

Google had made the announcement back in 2014 but postponed the shutdown until it could add more features to Google Maps. Also, the outcry from over 100 million users was stupendous.

Panoramio will now enter a “read-only” mode for one year, where the upload tool will be disabled but users will have access to their earlier images. Users will also be allowed to export their images. But, the export option and syncing with Google Album Archives will be available for one year. After November 4, 2017, all accounts will be deleted.

Google is also encouraging users to link their Panoramio account to their Google+ profile, which will automatically save photos from the defunct platform to the Google Album Archive, without using up the storage quota.