‘Immersive Navigation’ is the biggest Google Maps driving update in a decade

image via 9to5google.com
image via 9to5google.com

Google Maps is giving its driving experience the “biggest update in over a decade” with Immersive Navigation that redesigns visuals and offers “more intuitive guidance.” It starts with a “vivid 3D view that reflects the buildings, overpasses, and terrain around you.” Google Maps will highlight lanes, crosswalks, traffic lights, stop signs, and other critical road details “to help you make that turn or merge confidently.”

https://9to5google.com/2026/03/12/google-maps-immersive-navigation/

Atlassian to shed ten percent of staff, because AI

image via theregister.com
image via theregister.com

Australian collaborationware company Atlassian has announced it will shed ten percent of staff – around 1,600 people. “It would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does,” wrote CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes. “This is primarily about adaptation. We are reshaping our skill mix and changing how we work to build for the future.”

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/11/atlassian_layoffs/?td=rt-3a

WordPress debuts a private workspace that runs in your browser via a new service, my.WordPress.net

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

Through a new service called my.WordPress.net, the WordPress software lets users set up a site and begin publishing without signing up, setting up a hosting plan, or registering a domain. Instead, the new solution leverages the same technology that powers WordPress demos and makes it available as a permanent, personal publishing platform.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/11/wordpress-debuts-a-private-workspace-that-runs-in-your-browser-via-a-new-service-my-wordpress-net/

The Creator of Wordle Just Came Out With a New Game, and It’s Hard

image via gizmodo.com
image via gizmodo.com

While Wordle became hugely popular for its simple, intuitive, and satisfying gameplay, Wardle’s latest project, Parseword, is aiming for something quite different. “Even people for whom English is their second language are able to play,” Wardle told The New Yorker about Wordle. The same cannot necessarily be said for Parseword, which is Wardle’s take on the cryptic crossword.

https://gizmodo.com/the-creator-of-wordle-just-came-out-with-a-new-game-and-its-hard-2000732082

Google isn’t waiting for a settlement – the 30 percent Android app store fee is dead

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

By June 30th, Google writes, it will lower most app store fees in the US, UK, and European Economic Area to 20 percent or less, down from 30 percent. By the end of the year, it will launch a “Registered App Stores” program outside of the US, so that you can download and install third-party app stores (like the Epic Games Store) from the web without the friction that Google erected previously.

https://www.theverge.com/policy/889252/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google