Sometimes you need to get up close and personal with your maps — Street View has you covered. While most people have played around with Street View for some fun exploring on the web, the full suite of Street View imagery is also available on your phone or tablet in the Google Maps app. Of course viewing Street View on a smaller screen isn't ideal, but it's quite amazing to have so much...
Google has two distinctly different apps — Maps and Earth — that can handle similar tasks but are used in very different ways. Whereas on the desktop you can quickly switch between the informative Maps interface and detailed full-blown satellite Earth view, the experience is a bit choppier when you're juggling Maps and Earth apps on Android. Google Maps contains all of the navigation,...
Google Maps isn't just for browsing around and looking up restaurants, it's also an incredibly powerful navigation tool. When you need to get from A to B (to C and D) with reliable step-by-step directions, it's usually a good choice to go with the Google Maps app on your phone. Whether you're driving, walking, biking or riding public transit, Google Maps pulls in a wealth of...
You've always been able to share a specific location, or even your own location, on Google Maps — but as of version 9.3 of the app you can now share point to point directions. The process is extremely simple, and gives you step-by-step text directions that can be read by anyone on any device, whether they use Google Maps or not. And though most folks with smartphones sharing location...
Google Maps puts a crazy amount of information at your fingertips, but that's really only the case if you have an Internet connection. Step-by-step navigation, place searches and other advanced features require your device to be online, but Google Maps does offer you the ability to save one part of the experience for offline use. It's not the best situation ever and it's not feature-...
Google Maps is one of the biggest and best products from Google, and its integration and power within Android is one of the main selling points for many phones today. But with a system this powerful things start to get complicated, and it isn't always obvious how to do the most basic things you want to do in a mapping app. Whether you're opening up Google Maps for the first time on...
Google Maps for Android has picked up support for lane guidance, a feature that tells you which lane you should be in before your next turn, in a whole slew of new European countries today, including Denmark, Portugal, Austria, Greece, and many more. Here are the newly supported countries, from Google: Google Maps for mobile now has navigation lane guidance for Austria, Belgium,...
Google today released a new update for its Maps application. Version 9.3 is a rather minor update, which introduces the ability to share loaded directions. Much like printing out directions from Google Maps on paper, the app will share said route directions as instructions for the recipient to follow. Using the newly updated app, it's now possible to hit the menu in the top-right...
Google is now allowing developers to embed Photo Sphere in addition to Street View images in Google Maps on their own websites. The capabilities are now part of the Google Maps Embed API. Previously, web developers were able to embed a Photo Sphere that they had captured, but not public ones. The latest change allows you to embed a public Photo Sphere from Google Maps into your own...
You absolutely still have control over your own stuff, but now's a good time to check what you've been sharing Google recently started making some photos that you've posted publicly to Google+ visible in Google Maps as well, as evidenced by the notification we all got in Google+. That's not in and of itself a bad thing, nor is it an invasion of privacy. In order for an image to appear...
Street View cars are primarily used for collecting panoramic imagery of major cities and tourist attractions around the world, but that's not the only task they're mandated with. Google has outfitted a few Street View cars with methane sensors that enable the cars to check for natural gas leaks in the surrounding areas. Google Earth Outreach teamed up with the Environmental Defense...
Google Maps is expanding its Street View database to include walkthrough imagery of 36 more popular universities across the U.S. and Canada, just in time for the back-to-school season. Google highlights imagery from Georgetown, University of Miami and University of Regina in its post, along with 33 more well-known learning institutions. To see if Street View is available at a...
Google is adding a brand new way find out more about your surroundings in Google Maps with a new "Explore" feature. In the bottom right corner of the latest Google Maps app, you'll now notice a small location pin button next to the location button — tap it, and you'll be taken into the new Explore interface with information tailored to your location. By default you'll see what's going...
If you're one of the 310 million people who count Hindi as your primary language, you'll be glad to know that Google Maps is now available in Hindi. Google India announced the rollout of the feature today, which is available for the web and on Android devices running Android 4.3 and above. To set Hindi as the language on the web client, you can navigate to Google's Indian page and...
Google Maps is receiving an update to version 8.2 today, with a solid set of new features including in-navigation voice control, elevation change information for bicyclists and faster access to voice input from the main maps screen. The biggest change in this latest version is the ability to give Google Maps voice controls while you're navigating, something that hands-free driving...
Google has launched a new, Google Maps-based trivia game called Smarty Pins. The game asks you a number of geographically-based questions, and you drop your pin in the correct location to answer. The questions have a great range of difficulty, and pull from different topics like entertainment, sports, and history. Smarty Pins tracks your points as miles. You start with 1,000 miles,...
Shortly after the Google I/O keynote ended, Google pushed out an update to Google Maps to bring some new features to the free turn-by-turn navigation service. The change log this time is rather short, but the update does make it easier for you to search for places and know where to go. According to Google, search results will appear on the map with descriptions so that you can now...
Sometimes, you have to go off the grid Google has reintroduced offline maps in a recent update of the Google Maps application, and as Google often does, they leave a little mystery about how you can use them and how to download one. That's where we come in. We'll show you how to download and "install" a map for offline use and tell you how you can use them so you're not searching...
Google is buying the satellite imagery company Skybox Imagery for half a billion dollars. Google has used imagery from Landsat satellites for much of their mapping images, though in recent years they've been replacing that with detailed orbital shots from a variety of sources. Adding a satellite imaging company to their portfolio will enable Google to more quickly and accurately update...
Google has updated its Google Maps app in Great Britain adding in directions for travel using public transportation. The app update is available now for iOS and Android, as well as on the web on the desktop, will cover almost 17,000 routes of bus, train, tram, and ferry navigation. The update will work on travel across England, Wales, and Scotland, with Northern Ireland still in the...