Google is announced some new updates to Maps recently, and one of them should help you avoid the crowds on Black Friday. It’s basically an extension of the already available Popular Times feature, which has so far let you see how busy a place typically is on different days of the week.
From now, searching for a business via Google will not only show you when it’s typically crowded, but also an estimation of how busy it is right now. So if you see that a particular store is very full you can plan to head somewhere else.
There are a couple of other additions rolling out today. Place listings in Search and Maps will now tell you how long the typical stay is at a location, so if you people usually spend two hours at a restaurant, you can plan the rest of your day accordingly. Finally, Maps will now list more complex opening hours.