Google Waterway View in South Florida
Posted by Lacey Hagler on Tuesday, July 31st, 2018 at 9:24am.
Over 1 billion people use Google Maps daily to find the location of an unfamiliar place or estimate their arrival times throughout the day. After conquering the streets with Google Street View, Google is now creating a new resource for the boating lifestyle with Google “Waterway View”. From Jupiter to Key Largo, Google will be creating a detailed visual map covering 143 nautical miles of Intracoastal Waterway in South Florida.
Marine Industries Association of South Florida (MIASF), the same organization who owns the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, has partnered with Google for this endeaver. MIASF is the largest marine trade organization in the Southeast United States dedicated to protecting and growing marine businesses by promoting boating lifestyles, from family cruising to yachting, and the goods and services that sustain them.
Phil Purcell, CEO and President of the MIASF, explains why our local waterways were deemed as the ideal place to begin this beneficial task. "This is an incredible opportunity to add another tool to the toolkit of the marine industry in South Florida, which employs 136,000 people and produces an annual economic impact of $11.5 billion,” says Phil “Just as Google Street View is a valuable instrument and a trusted way for businesses to connect with customers, Waterway View has the potential to be the most exciting new resource for the boating lifestyle, connecting boaters with restaurants, marinas, fuel docks, service and sales centers, and all the other resources they may need.”
Mapping is underway, and is expected to be near completion upon summer 2018. The free mobile app will be available from Google Play, Apple App Store, and the MIASF website in late 2018, but a web browser version should be available sooner.
Local businesses will be able to use Google Waterway View as a marketing platform to promote traffic directly to their dock by placing a request through an online form on the MIASF website, here: http://www.miasf.org/waterway-view