Ride Don’t Drive: Google Adds Bike Directions To Maps
Last night Google announced the inclusion of bike directions to car, public transit and walking directions options on Google Maps. According to Google Maps’ Shannon Guymon this was one of the most requested missing features on Google Maps.
The new bike directions also provide a new view on maps (see below), one that is more “bike [...]
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Google Maps Integrates Flickr Photos
Google Maps added user photos from Panaramio to Street View last year. They started with photos around major landmarks and added user photos for all their Street Views as well as maps without Street View. Now geo-tagged, user-submitted Flickr photos as well as other location-specific photos from Google’s own Picasa are more a part of Google Maps’ offerings than ever: Google’s adding new ways to find the photos and better integrating them with their own street-level views.
The new integration will show the user photos just like it used to (accessible through a thumbnail shot in the upper-right), but it will also interconnect the user photos. If they have a better shot of a Street View or user photo, an “orb” will appear in the image when a user rolls their mouse over it. Click on the orb to see the better view.
Google uses its recognition and matching technology to identify views of the same building and link them to the maps. They also put an orb on adjacent images if they have a better view of those.
Read Write Web points out this may be a direct challenge to Bing’s Maps with Photosynth, originally integrated into Microsoft’s maps offering in 2008.
As always, Google explains with a video, too:
In other Google Maps news, they’re also offering a service to try to help locate loved ones in the aftermath of the Chile earthquake this weekend.
What do you think? Is this a Bing Maps killer—and does Google really need one?
Google Maps Labs Open for Business
Google continues to move forward with its work to improve the Google Maps experience as everything gets pushed further and further down to the local level in search. By opening the Google Maps Lab and allowing you to slap a beta logo on it if you please (a little humor from the Googlers, huh?) there is a look at what they are cooking up for the future.
When Google wants to test new features, they call them Lab experiments, and make them opt-in. Now, following many other services, Google Maps received a Lab icon. Click the green flask at the top of Google Maps and you get a chance to enable features like the following:
Drag ’n’ Zoom: Click the Drag-and-Zoom button, then draw a box on the map to immediately zoom into that place.
Aerial Imagery: Available for certain areas, aerial imagery “gives you rotatable, high-resolution overhead imagery presented in a new perspective.”
Other areas that are part of the labs experience allow the user to search for the best places in that location, giving the latitude and longitude of the selected area as well as the ability to rotate maps.
While the Labs experience that Google has had with other services provides the history that not everything in Labs makes the cut this opening says something about just how serious Google is about local search. Why wouldn’t they be considering the pile of money that it represents and someone has to take it, right?
Apple Will Take Google’s Money But Still Thinks They Are BS
There have apparently been some rumors (yes, there are rumor mongers in the Internet space which is SO hard to believe) that have been talking about Apple entering the search game with their own search engine. This whole game of Google v. Apple has lately been fueled by the rumor mill and comments like those made by Steve Jobs in giving his take on the “Do No Evil” mantra of Google. While that makes for some juicy headlines and speculation it is apparently not true about Apple’s attempt at search.
The Business Insider tells us the reasons why that rumor is not true.
The rumor that Apple is building its own search engine “isn’t credible,” according to a source familiar with Apple’s operations.
Our source tells us “there’s too many options” for search on the market, so there’s no reason for Apple to build its own search engine.
Another reason Apple might not want to build its own search engine: It’s getting over $100 million a year from Google in its revenue share deal, according to our source.
Now, $100 million in Apple’s case is not a huge sum of money. Of course, having that come in the door rather than putting valuable resources of time and talent on building its own engine is the better way to go. One thing that was not mentioned in the article is how long this deal is in place. This is an important piece of any business interactions between Google and Apple because as the days pass the fact that they don’t like each other is becoming very obvious. Of course, being head-to-head competitors for control of the Internet as we know it can make this happen.
There is mounting evidence that how these two giants interact is changing and may be less and less of a reality moving forward.
Our source tells us when Apple first introduced the iPhone, it hammered out its deal for Google Maps in two weeks. When Apple prepared to launch the iPhone 3G with GPS a year later, it was a six-month process “full of acrimony” to get the maps deal finished.
Google wanted access to all sorts of data from the maps, but Apple didn’t want to give it up, according to this person.
If you would like to see Business Insider’s take on the Apple side of the coin then visit their piece called 11 Apple Execs Hellbent On Destroying Google. It’s fun to think that people are rubbing their hands together furiously in Mountain View and Cupertino laughing their best “Buhahahahahaha” laughs as they plot each other’s demise. Gotta love the Internet.
Cambodia Calls Google Maps “Misleading” Over Thailand Border Dispute
Cambodia blasts Google map of disputed Thai border from Reuters reports Cambodia is the latest country upset with Google over how they draw the border on Google Maps. Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, wrote a letter saying Google was “radically misleading,” “professionally irresponsible” and “devoid of truth and reality.”
Cambodia and Thailand have military [...]
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Google Maps To Add “Google Store Views”
I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new Google Maps product named “Google Store Views.” I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took [...]
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Google Searches Follow To Your Mobile Life – If It’s An Android
Google continues to bring more and more functionality to the Google experience and in a huge coincidence the latest improvements only run on Android phones. Hmmm……wonder why they would do that?
In a nutshell, Android devices can now access searches made on your computer or other devices. If you do a search query on your desktop then hit the road with your Android phone you can now have that search available on the go. The Official Google Mobile Blog states
If you often use both a computer and a mobile phone in your daily routine, it can seem like a hassle when they don’t stay in sync. You might spend time on your computer looking for a great used bookstore, only to forget the name of the place when you are ready to get directions from your phone. Sure, you could print directions in advance, but we believe smartphones are “smart” because they save you time. That’s why today we’re making your phone a bit smarter with the introduction of personalized suggestions and synchronized starring in Google Maps for mobile on Android.
Google continues to make these kinds of updates aimed directly at the market that is making smartphone choices. If there is a chance to jump ship from say, Verizon, it can be tempting to go over to AT&T for the iPhone. In my case, I have a BlackBerry Storm that needs to be replaced. I have thought about an iPhone forever but Android phones are looking like a strong choice because of my near dependency on Google services. My iPod Touch can do the app thing but carrying two devices kinda sucks. Honestly, though, it may be worth the hassle if Google is going to just do more on the Android phone.
The blog gives a scenario where this feature could come in handy
Personalized suggestions make it easy to find places you’ve previously searched for. For example, imagine you’re on your computer and you come across the Place Page for Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe. After reading reviews, you decide to stop in for lunch. When you’re ready to go and want to get directions, just open Google Maps on your phone, start typing “mar,” and you’ll quickly see a suggestion – saving you from re-typing a long query and making it easier and faster to be on your way.
The fight is definitely on between Google and just about everyone else. It gets some people like Steve Jobs pretty riled up. What’s more important though is that it gets customers fired up to have a smartphone that helps them be more efficient with the tools that they already rely on for efficiency.
This is only going to get more intense so fasten your seat belts and be ready for the fireworks should be created that the rest of this year and many more to come.
Beware of Google Agent 007
Google is so good at what it does that it actually uncovers illegal acts and helps bring perpetrators to justice. Well that may be a bit of a stretch but in the “is that really news department” is an incident where the roving Google camera caught a Canadian tree-killer in the act. As a result, the parties that were committing “treeicide” (not a real word, I know but this is a blog, remember) may find themselves facing some significant fines.
Forget about all of those ubiquitous police surveillance cameras in your city: the new sheriff in town is that shifty Google Maps camera wheeling through your neighborhood.
Recently, a property owner in Canada was charged with illegal removal of trees after a Google camera helped capture the evidence, according to CanWest News Service.
Last May in Vancouver, Margaret Burnyeat allegedly hired a company to remove 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees from two adjacent lots she owned. Neighbors alerted the police, who found some stumps that hadn’t yet been removed.
Luckily for the city, one of Google’s Street View cameras — strapped to cars and driven through neighborhoods to photograph high-resolution, 360-degree images that are then linked to Google’s online mapping tool — caught some of the culprits in action.
The picture that brought them down
What is ironic about all of this is the adversarial relationship that exists between the roving Google camera and the Canadian government. Things between the two have been a little rough in the past.
Ironically, Canadian authorities have been some of the most resistant to the presence of Google’s controversial cameras in streets. The company launched its Street View service in parts of the U.S. and Canada in 2007 and have since expanded to 12 other countries.
But after the Canadian privacy commissioner and others raised questions about whether the roaming cameras were legal, because Google collected identifiable images of people without their consent, the company implemented an automated feature that blurs faces and license plates. The company will also consider removing some images from its service upon request from the public or governments.
So what’s the takeaway here? Be careful what you do because you never know when Google Agent 007 is looking. He seeks justice under the guise of recording locations without your permission. Isn’t he slick?
Google New Local Ad Category Invades The “7 Pack”
It doesn’t in any way affect a local business ranking in the so-called “7 pack” or on the subsequent Google Maps page. However Google is introducing a new local business ad (”enhanced listings“) that allows a business to stand out with an “enhanced” presence on the map or in the map-related listings on the SERP. [...]
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Six Odd Tactics For Getting Ads Into Google Maps
As usage of Google Maps grows, marketers are increasingly drawn to the promotional potential found there, and some innovative ways of insinuating ads into the interface have evolved. Here’s a breakdown of some of the strangest tactics that have been dreamed-up for getting messages in front of Maps users.
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