¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ

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Mobile Maps SDK
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¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ enables Tripadvisor to build the best map for travelers, increasing user engagement by 70% and bookings by 3.5%

Key benefits of building with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ

  • The ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ 3D basemap provides the location context and customizability to fully tailor a map for travelers.
  • ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ flexibility allows Tripadvisor to design custom map pins that directly display dynamic content, including the ratings and awards that travelers look for.
  • The redesigned, interactive map with updated pins on the Tripadvisor app increased user engagement by 70% and increased bookings by 3.5%.

products used

Base Maps

¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ GL JS

Mobile Maps SDK

Static Maps

Search

About Tripadvisor

As the world¡¯s largest travel guidance platform, helps hundreds of millions of travelers find the best hotels, restaurants, and things to do on their trips. With over a billion reviews and photos from a global community, Tripadvisor empowers travelers with trusted guidance, reliable ratings, and widely recognized Travelers¡¯ Choice Awards.

Tripadvisor¡¯s commitment to traveler-focused innovation drives the development of cutting-edge AI solutions that transform how people plan their journeys. The company¡¯s AI-powered trip planning tool in the Tripadvisor app leverages over a billion traveler reviews to generate personalized, day-by-day itineraries in minutes. This allows travelers to build their trips with AI ahead of time and then seamlessly access saved recommendations and discover new activities while exploring a destination. Tripadvisor continuously evolves its web and mobile platform based on what travelers actually need, and its maps are no exception.

Inflexible maps meant missed opportunities

Tripadvisor knows that maps are critical for helping travelers explore a new place ¡ª from choosing a hotel near top attractions to finding the best restaurants or things to do in an area. The Tripadvisor team needed a solution that allowed them to use maps to enhance the traveler experience and allow for innovation with advanced flexibility.?

Most mapping solutions offer a map that has to serve many different uses, particularly driving navigation. Our travelers have different needs ¨C they need to know where the important landmarks are and where places like hotels and restaurants are in relation to those landmarks. We needed the flexibility to optimize the map for travelers¡¯ needs.

Jeremy Frisch, Product Lead, Places & Maps, Tripadvisor
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To build the best map for travelers, Tripadvisor recognized that a different approach was needed. Most mapping solutions are designed for drivers, resulting in a complex interface that prioritizes granular navigational details¡ªlike bike lanes, crosswalks, and complex road interchanges¡ªover the elements crucial for travel planning. For Tripadvisor's users, who are looking to discover and plan their trips, this meant the map was too busy and filled with irrelevant information. The team¡¯s vision was to simplify the map to let the content shine, allowing travelers to find what is most important to them more quickly. By de-emphasizing these non-essential features, Tripadvisor could better highlight the landmarks, tourist areas, and restaurants that travelers actually need to see.

Partnering with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ for traveler-focused map design

Tripadvisor decided to move to ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ to create a uniquely tailored travel map, designed to prioritize the details that travelers value most.

We saw an opportunity to create a truly differentiated product, as most platforms are using generic, one-size-fits-all maps. Our goal was to build an experience that exclusively meets traveler needs, which required a partner that offered deep technical customization and collaborative design. ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ was the clear choice, and our partnership was essential to delivering a superior experience for our global traveler community.

Sanjay Raman, Chief Product Officer, Tripadvisor
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Tripadvisor chose the as the foundation for its map redesign. The 3D features in Standard give travelers a better sense of where amenities are in relation to major tourist sites. The symbolic design of Standard allows color palette customizations and ensures that custom pins visually stand out on the map.

¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Standard also allows for fine-tuned customizations of individual basemap elements or feature classes. Tripadvisor can deemphasize features like roads and highways while emphasizing shopping and tourist areas. Tripadvisor can also apply an overall color aesthetic to make the map fit stylistically into its website and mobile app.?As the map swipes below, see the Tripadvisor customizations of the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Standard basemap.

With the design flexibility provided by ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ, Tripadvisor transformed its static map pins into interactive, information-rich map pins. The pins now include text labels,?ratings, and a Tripadvisor Traveler¡¯s Choice Award insignia where applicable. The new map pins intuitively surface the uniquely valuable branded guidance and insights directly on the map.

Our old pins used to hide places inside numbered clusters, leaving travelers to guess what was inside. We replaced that with a smarter system where pins shrink in crowded areas but remain identifiable, elegantly showing density. As you zoom in, they expand to reveal valuable guidance from our community, like ratings and awards.

Jeremy Frisch, Product Lead, Places & Maps, Tripadvisor
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Updated icons include text labels, ratings, and a Tripadvisor Traveler¡¯s Choice Award insignia where applicable.

Putting maps front and center, flexibly

Tripadvisor also launched a sophisticated map view for its 'Nearby' feature on its mobile app to help travelers find things to do while they are at their destination.

Our 'Nearby' feature in the app used to present travelers with a simple list and a static, non-interactive map. With ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ, we flipped that dynamic to create a map-first experience, putting visual discovery front and center. Travelers responded immediately¡ªwe saw engagement jump by 70%.

Jeremy Frisch, Product Lead, Places & Maps, Tripadvisor
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The new Tripadvisor Nearby map in the mobile app.

Because travelers rely on Tripadvisor for every stage of their trip, from planning to in-destination discovery, providing a consistent and performant map experience across both web and mobile is essential. Building with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ GL JS for web and the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Mobile Maps SDKs for iOS and Android means that TripAdvisor¡¯s maps render consistently and performantly across all devices. The ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Static Images API gives Tripadvisor another flexible option to embed maps where interactivity is not needed.

A key advantage for Tripadvisor is that it also uses the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Search APIs to strengthen both data integrity and the user contribution process. Internally, Tripadvisor uses the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Geocoding API to ensure its massive database of POIs has accurate latitude and longitude data. This is critical for the user experience, as it guarantees that when a traveler is looking for a specific hotel or restaurant, the pin appears in the correct place on the map.

For user-submitted content, the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Search Box API solved a major friction point in adding new places to the platform. Previously, users or business owners could only search for places that were near their current location. Because the Search Box API supports global search, a traveler can easily add a restaurant they visited in Paris after returning home to Chicago. The global dataset in the Search Box API instantly returns structured, precise location data, making submissions faster, more accurate, and possible from anywhere in the world.

We wanted to make it effortless for anyone to add a new business to Tripadvisor. ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Search Box and Geocoding helped us do just that, simplifying the process and ensuring we get accurate location data into our system quickly and easily.

Jeremy Frisch, Product Lead, Places & Maps, Tripadvisor
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Bringing a project of this scale to life required more than just great APIs.?¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ Premium Support meant the Tripadvisor team could work side-by-side with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ engineering and design experts to build the new traveler-centric map from the ground up.

More engaged travelers, better booking behavior

The new Tripadvisor map experience is more than a visual refresh ¡ª it is a strategic product improvement.

Our partnership with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ is truly what enabled us to build our new map experience. The ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ design team was critical in bringing the vision of our redesigned basemap and pins to life. Their technical experts helped ensure our map functions the way we planned. Our partnership made the implementation process significantly easier.

Sanjay Raman, Chief Product Officer, Tripadvisor
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After rolling out the new pin designs and its Nearby map, Tripadvisor saw travelers spending more time on the app and 3.5% more users book experiences after exploring them. The Nearby map feature has also encouraged travelers to use the Tripadvisor app not just for planning, but as an on-the-go assistant when in-destination. Over the long term, Tripadvisor is confident that its map enhancements will drive more user retention, more bookings, and more reviews written by travelers.

Building with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓÆµ has equipped Tripadvisor to deliver a truly traveler-first map experience ¡ª one that is not just about getting from point A to B, but about inspiring discovery and celebrating the joy of travel.

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