News

Google Brings Plus Codes To 18 MENA Countries

The geocode system behind the feature, called the Open Location Code, was developed at Google’s Zürich engineering office and launched in 2014.

Published

4 years ago

April 22, 2022

David Morelo

google brings plus codes to 18 mena countries

The Plus Codes feature of Google Maps will soon be turned on for users in 18 MENA countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria.

The feature allows Google Maps users to turn their latitude and longitude co-ordinates into a short sequence of numbers and letters that they can easily share with others.

google maps how plus codes work

“Plus Codes are like street addresses for people or places that don’t have one,” explains Google. “With a Plus Code, people can receive deliveries, access emergency and social services, or just help other people find them.”

The geocode system behind the feature, called the Open Location Code (OLC), was developed at Google’s Zürich engineering office and launched in 2014.

Also Read: Disney+ Confirms Its Middle East Launch Date

Earlier this year, Plus Codes launched in India, quickly attracting hundreds of thousands of users. Plus Codes are also widely used by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, and businesses that want to make it easier for customers to find them.

To Generate A Plus Code On A Computer

Open Google Maps.
Select the location for which you want to generate a Plus Code.
Click the coordinates (such as 49.475019, 17.116156) displayed in the info box at the bottom.
Hover your mouse over the plus code in the left pane.
Click the copy button to copy the generated Plus Code to the clipboard.

To Generate A Plus Code On A Mobile Device

Launch the Google Maps app.
Drop a pin at the location for which you want to generate a Plus Code.
Tap the “Dropped pin” panel at the bottom.
Find the Plus Code beside the Plus Code logo.
Tap the Plus Code to copy it to the clipboard.

Alternatively, you can use the map on the official website of Plus Code to quickly generate a Plus Code for any location with a street address.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.