Is Google building a a version of Maps for kids?

By: JILLIAN D'ONFRO

Late last year, Google announced plans to make some of its most popular products more kid-friendly.

The company said it wants to revamp entities like YouTube and Chrome to be more "fun and safe for children" over the course of 2015.

In February, it released its first new product: YouTube Kids, which CEO Susan Wojcicki recently said caused watch time for family content videos to increase 80% faster than that of other clips.

Now, a recent job posting pegs Geo products like Maps and Earth as one of the next targets for kid-friendliness.

Here's the relevant part of the posting:

You will be the Product Counsel for a mixed portfolio of work across Geo and Google's efforts to make our products more useful to kids. In this role, you'll work with Product Managers, Engineers and other Geo Product Counsels on a variety of Geo consumer and developer products. You'll work closely with teams from a wide range of product areas as they explore products designed to delight and enrich kids.

Google declined to comment on the job posting or its future plans, but let's speculate what Google Geo for kids could look like: A more interactive Maps experience that could be used in schools? Google Earth but with fun graphics interspersed?

Since Google released YouTube Kids, a number of consumer advocacy groups, as well as a US senator, have sent the Federal Trade Commission and Google complaints about how the app both contained adult content and too many ads deceptively mixed with programming.