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Tag: maps

  • The New Google Maps Is Real, And Here Are All The Cool New Things It Does

    It has been officially announced.

    Last week, a couple screen caps of an apparently upcoming Google Maps redesign leaked. While the authenticity of these was questioned, it seemed likely that they were real. Now, it’s pretty much certain than they were, as another leak has sprung ahead of Google I/O.

    DroidLife reported on a sign-up page for the new Google Maps leaking last night, and has shared screenshots of that. Luckily for those interested, this includes descriptions of all the new features, so we don’t have to wait for Google’s keynote today to learn about what it does (assuming this is where they are planning on unveiling it, which seems highly likely).

    There are a lot of new features. Here is Google’s run down from the leak:

    The most comprehensive map, now built for you: The new Google Maps draws you a tailored map for every search and click you make. So whatever you’re trying to find or wherever you’re trying to go, you’ll always have a map highlighting the things that matter most.

    Discover more with every search: The new, smarter search box is your starting point for discovery. One search makes all the information you need available at a glance – read up on your destination, see ratings and reviews and sometimes, even take a peek inside.

    Dive into your world: From outer space to the streets, the new Google Maps gathers all the imagery of a location into one spot making it easy to explore your world from every angle.

    Earth View: The things you love about Google Earth are now directly integrated into the map, so you can see the planet without a plug-in. Or a passport. *Available on WebGL-enabled browsers.

    Flight Search: New flight directions help you find flight options, ticket prices, and estimated travel times right on the map.

    Find the best way there: You can now compare multiple modes of transportation right on the map to find the best way there and the best way home.

    A map that gets better with use: As you search the map, star places you like and leave reviews, the map starts to adapt and can suggest things like restaurants you might enjoy or the quickest way home. In other words, the more you use the new Google Maps, the more helpful it becomes.

    It’s a pretty big overhaul, and one that seems like it will only make Google’s hugely popular maps service all the more useful, though we’ll have to wait until people can start using it to truly now how good the revamp is.

    It will be interesting to see if any complaints come out from competitors. Don’t forget the FairSearch Coalition was formed because of Google’s Flight Search feature, and it looks like they’re making that a much more prominent part of the Google experience.

  • Google Improves Map Accuracy in Thailand, Indonesia

    Google Improves Map Accuracy in Thailand, Indonesia

    Google announced today that it has improved maps in Thailand and Indonesia as part of a project called Ground Truth, which it started back inn 2008. The project is simply Google’s initiative to prove more comprehensive and accurate maps.

    “Through this project, we use high-quality map data from authoritative sources around the world and then apply a mix of advanced algorithms, supplemental data (including satellite, aerial and Street View imagery), and human input to help create a map that mirrors the real world as closely as possible,” explains Brian McClendon, VP Google Maps and Google Earth.

    “For example, the updated map for Thailand now provides more comprehensive information about the Bangkok city center,” adds McClendon. ” So next time you happen to find yourself needing to cross the Chao Phraya River, you’ll be able to see that many ferry routes across the river are now mapped in greater detail, with route names shown and piers clearly marked. You can also pinpoint nearby points of interest, such as the Grand Palace and other sites like Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha).”

    Google has added more info to the maps as well, including improved local language labels and more detailed coverage of prominent places, such as universities and hospitals.

    Additionally, Google is now including more of Thailand and Indonesia’s natural geography. Many of Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, for example, are appearing on Google Maps for the first time. This includes Komodo Island.

    This week, Google also released its biggest update to date for Street View.

  • Google Map Maker Heads To The UK

    Google Map Maker Heads To The UK

    Google announced the launch of Google Map Maker in the UK, kicking it off with a MapUp workshop in Bletchley Park.

    Program Manager Satish Mavuri writes in a post on the Google Maps blog:

    More than 40,000 people around the world are making contributions and improving Google Maps through Google Map Maker each month. Now it’s your turn to help, whether marking the trails throughBrecon Beacons National Park in Wales, adding all your favorite shops in London’s Soho Square, or improving driving directions to St Ives in Cornwall. Drawing from your knowledge about world famous tourist destinations or the streets of your hometown, you can now use Google Map Maker to make the map of the United Kingdom (along with Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey) more comprehensive and accurate than ever before. Once approved, these improvements will appear across Google Maps,Google Earth, and Google Maps for Mobile.

    …

    Krzysztof Przygoda, a Poland native who’s actively contributed to the map of that country via Map Maker, has since relocated with his family to the UK. Now, he’s looking forward to enriching the maps of both his homeland and his new stomping grounds. Krzysztof is particularly eager to map the narrow network of paths that wind through his new neighborhood, with the goal of improving directions and navigation for local cyclists and pedestrians in Gloucester.

    Google is calling upon people familiar with particular places in the UK to join Map Maker and engage with the community.

  • Mapping While Driving Ruled Illegal in California

    Mapping While Driving Ruled Illegal in California

    Thanks to a recent court ruling by a California appellate court, it doesn’t matter that you were only checking your smartphone to update Google Maps. That’s because the law, as it currently reads, bans any sort of hands-on use of phones while driving.

    The case comes on an appeal from the Superior Court of Fresno County. Last year, Steven Spriggs was cited for violating section 23123, which bans the use of wireless technologies while driving.

    Specifically:

    Section 23123, subdivision (a) provides: A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.

    Spriggs argued that the statute was only enacted to limit talking on a cellphone, and didn’t originally apply to any other use of the device. Also, since the state had to amend the rules later to add language banning texting while driving, it supports his claim that the original intent of the law only applied to conversing while driving.

    But the court rejected that claim.

    “Our review of the statute‟s plain language leads us to conclude that the primary evil sought to be avoided is the distraction the driver faces when using his or her hands to operate the phone. That distraction would be present whether the wireless telephone was being used as a telephone, a GPS navigator, a clock or a device for sending and receiving text messages and emails,” said judge Kent Hamlin.

    Furthermore:

    Neither the plain language of the statute nor the legislative history support the conclusion that section 23123, subdivision(a), was designed to prohibit hands-on use of a wireless telephone for conversation only. Notably, the legislative history acknowledges that the statute as worded does not eliminate a “potentially more significant” distraction of carrying on a conversation while driving. The statute instead focuses on the distraction a driver faces when using his or her hands to operate the phone, specifically including “the physical distraction a motorist encounters when either picking up the phone, punching the number keypad, holding the phone up to his or her ear to converse, or pushing a button to end a call.” That distraction would be present whether the phone is used for carrying on a conversation or for some other purpose.

    Basically, the law in vague enough to cover any sort of hands-on use of the wireless device. This includes mapping in any form.

    Of course, if someone wanted to program their route into Google Maps and then never touch it again while driving, that would be ok. If they wanted to make alterations to the route, they would presumably have to pull over first.

    In the end, the court ruled that the law may have been enacted arbitrarily and could very well need retooling – but that’s a job for the legislature, not the court.

    “It may be argued that the Legislature acted arbitrarily when it outlawed all ‘hands-on’ use of a wireless telephone while driving, even though the legal use of one‟s hands to operate myriad other devices poses just as great a risk to the safety of other motorists. It may also be argued that prohibiting driving while using ‘electronic wireless communications devices’ for texting and emailing, while acknowledging and failing to prohibit perhaps even more distracting uses of the same devices, is equally illogical and arbitrary. Both arguments should be addressed to the Legislature in support of additional legislation barring any use of those other devices in other than a hands-free manner, or in support of a repeal or amendment of section 23123 to allow the ‘hands-on’ use of wireless telephones for other purposes while driving,” says Hamlin.

    As of today, 39 states ban texting while driving for all drivers, and another 6 ban the practice for novice drivers. But a recent survey from AT&T found that nearly 50% of people do it anyway – even though 98% acknowledged that it is indeed wrong to do so. A rule like this banning mapping will likely be ignored by even more people than that.

    [California v. Steven R. Spriggs via Digital Trends]
    [Photo via ~W~, Flickr]

  • Google Runs Afoul of Indian Agency over Mapping Contest

    Google, who is no stranger to international dustups over its maps and street view service, has run afoul of India’s federal mapping agency over a recent project to improve upon the country’s maps.

    Google first announced the Mapathon back in February, saying that they were trying to create better maps for India, “a country where even paper maps have historically lacked in details.” Google offered prizes to participants – including Android tablets, phones, and various bits of Google swag. All Google asked people to do was add location details via Google Map Maker.

    The Mapathon officially began on February 12th and was over by March 25th.

    According to Google India, the Mapathon was a huge success. They reported new information on 32,000 emergency locations like hospitals, 82,000 food updates, and 42,000 map updates on places of worship. None of the information collected via Map Maker had anything to do with “sensitive places,” according to Google.

    But the Indian Survey agency wasn’t too happy about it, and they asked Google to cease the promotion as it was “likely to jeopardize national security interest and violates National Map Policy.”

    The Indian federal survey and mapping agency has filed an official complaint, and the head of the agency says that they plan to take the issue to Parliament later this month. Apparently, local law says that companies must obtain expressed permission from the proper authorities in order to operate a map project like the one Google sponsored. Failure to do so opens up such companies to local prosecution.

    But Google India spokesperson Roy Chowdhury says that Google did in fact informed local officials of its mapping project, and that it complied with all local regulations.

    “We take security and national regulations very seriously, and we’re open to discussing specific concerns with public authorities and officials,” said Chowdhury.

    [Wall Street Journal (paywall) via Search Engine Land]

  • Foursquare Adds Interactive Maps to Android App

    Foursquare has just released an update to their Android app that brings better maps to the explore feature and lets users redefine the parameters of their location searching by zooming in on a specific portion of the map.

    “We’ve updated the app to give you a better map experience. Now when you’re on the home screen looking at friends and interesting places nearby, or searching for “iced coffee” or “egg sandwich” in Explore, we’ll show you a map that you can expand, swipe, and zoom,” says Foursquare.

    Probably the most useful effect of this update is that users will be able to make their searches more specific by zooming in on a specific portion of a map. Just zoom in to the smaller frame and tap “redo search” and only venues within that smaller radius will appear in your results.

    Just a couple weeks ago, Foursquare updated its Android app to show suggestions based on whether you’re a tourist or a local.

    You can grab the update right now over on Google Play.

  • Facebook’s Gay Marriage Support Map Looks Exactly How You’d Expect It to Look

    As you may remember, Facebook was painted red on Tuesday as marriage equality supporters changed their profile pictures to a red and pink equals sign to show their support of the cause.

    The image was shared by the Human Rights Campaign’s Facebook page, who repurposed their normal blue and yellow logo to show support for same-sex marriage as the U.S. Supreme Court began to hear arguments in two relevant cases.

    Facebook’s data science team has analyzed the campaign, and has provided us with a neat little map of all the counties in the U.S. The redder the county, the more profile pic changes its Facebook users made on that day.

    Look, we’re not saying that there are no marriage equality supporters in the south, or that everyone in California or Michigan supports same-sex marriage. We’re just saying that the look of this map leaves nobody around here surprised.

    Facebook notes a not all that curious trend. Apparently, many of the top 25 counties in the country that showed the most love for HRC’s marriage equality campaign house colleges – Orange (University of North Carolina), Durham (Duke University), Monroe (Indiana University), Johnson (University of Iowa), Athens (Ohio University), Dane (University of Wisconsin), Boulder (University of Colorado), and Travis (University of Texas at Austin).

    Apart from that, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, and Washington, D.C. also ranked high on the list for changed profile pics.

    Facebook’s data team has some more interesting insights about HRC’s campaign. Here’s a couple:

    • 120% more people across the network changed their profile picture on Tuesday compared to the previous Tuesday.
    • Those closest to the age of 30 were the most likely users to update their profile picture.
    • Females were slightly more likely (2.3%) to change their profile pic.

    Facebook closes their study with this:

    “For a long time, when people stood up for a cause and weren’t all physically standing shoulder to shoulder, the size of their impact wasn’t immediately apparent. But today, we can see the spread of an idea online in greater detail than ever before. That’s data well worth finding.”

    Did you change you profile picture on Tuesday?

  • Google Street View Takes You to Abandoned Fukushima Town of Namie-machi

    Google is announcing another batch of fresh Street View imagery, this time coming from Japan.

    More specifically, Namie-machi, a small city in Fukushima Prefecture that’s in the Fukushima exclusion zone. That means that although years have passed since the nuclear accident that occurred as a result of the great earthquake of 2011, Namie-machi’s residents are still unable to return to their city.

    And that affects 21,000 people, according to a Google blog post.

    Google’s Street View team combed through the deserted town, and what you have is some more stunning imagery from a natural disaster. Back in December of 2011, Google unveiled Street View imagery of the earthquake and tsunami-torn northeastern coast of Japan.

    Here’s the kind of stuff you’ll see:

    Namie-machi mayor Tamotsu Baba explains the above image:

    This image shows an area located one kilometer inland from the Pacific Ocean. In the distance you can see Ukedo Elementary School. Nearby Ukedo Harbor once proudly boasted 140 fishing boats and 500 buildings, but suffered some of the worst tsunami damage. After being set off-limits, we have not been able to clean up the wreckage on the side of the road, including the many fishing boats that were washed several kilometers inland.

    Baba goes on to heartbreakingly convey that some people just want to see the state of their home.

    “Many of the displaced townspeople have asked to see the current state of their city, and there are surely many people around the world who want a better sense of how the nuclear incident affected surrounding communities.”

    You can start looking around Namie-machi today.

  • Google Takes You Atop the Tallest Mountains in the World with Insane New Street View Imagery

    Google has taken its Google Maps team to some awesome places to capture some amazing street view imagery. Recent expeditions that come to mind include treks to the Arctic, the Grand Canyon, and under the sea. But this just might be the coolest Street View imagery yet.

    Starting today, you can check out some incredible Street View images from the tops of some of the tallest mountains in the world.

    “Now you can explore some of the most famous mountains on Earth, including Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Elbrus (Europe) and Everest Base Camp (Asia) on Google Maps. These mountains belong to the group of peaks known as the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. While there’s nothing quite like standing on the mountain, with Google Maps you can instantly transport yourself to the top of these peaks and enjoy the sights without all of the avalanches, rock slides, crevasses, and dangers from altitude and weather that mountaineers face,” says Google.

    Check out Uhuru, which at 19,341 ft. is the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro. Or Russia’s Mount Elbrus and its small encampment of huts made from Soviet-era fuel barrels.

    Seen below is the Aconcagua summit, the highest mountain in South America and the highest point viewable in Street View (22,800 ft):

    This awesome imagery is the work of years of climbing, starting in 2011 with a trip to Everest base camp.

    “This imagery was collected with a simple lightweight tripod and digital camera with a fisheye lens—equipment typically used for our Business Photos program,” says Google’s “lead adventurer” Dan Fredinburg.

    “In every one of these trips you are going up against the elements,” he told The L.A. Times. “In the Everest expedition, a plane crashed similar to the one that we were on to get in, and after that, there was three days of mudslides, snowstorms and then there was the earthquake, which was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake which was absolutely terrifying for everyone who was on the expedition as well as the locals.”

    You can start exploring the World’s Highest Peaks gallery here.

  • Google Splitting Up Mapping and Commerce, Former SVP Jeff Huber Joins Google X

    Google is shaking things up even more today as the Wall Street Journal reports that the company is breaking up their mapping and commerce units.

    According to the report, Google’s mapping unit will become part of the search division, and the commerce will fall under the advertising division.

    The personnel blowback of this is that Google SVP Jeff Huber is out of a job – but not really. He’s actually moving on to another Google unit.

    Huber joined Google back in 2003 and up until now was the Senior Vice President of Geo and Commerce, overseeing maps, payments, and travel. He also led engineering & development for AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and for Google Apps.

    Huber will be joining Google X, the Sergey Brin-led secret projects wings of Google that is responsible for the company’s crazier ideas – like Google Glass.

    Of course, this isn’t the only big shift at Google this week. Yesterday, we told you that longtime Android head Andy Rubin was stepping down and being replaced by Sundar Pichai, SVP of Chrome and apps. Google CEO Larry Page said that Rubin would be starting a “new chapter” at Google, but didn’t do into any more details? Is everyone running to Google X?

    In other, non-personnel-related drama, Google also announced that they were shutting down Google Reader on July 1st. So much drama in the MVHQ.

    [Wall Street Journal]

  • Google Maps for iOS Gets Google Contacts Support, Local Category Search

    Google Maps for iOS has just received its first major update since launching back in December. Today’s update brings a couple of new features that will make it easier for users to find people and places inside the app.

    Version 1.1 now allows you to search you Google contacts inside the app. When you sign in, you’ll be able to see all of your friends’ saved addresses – even if they aren’t stored on your device.

    The update also adds category searches for locations, meaning that you can browse local bars, restaurants, etc. within the app.

    Here’s the full list of what’s new in v1.1:

    • Search your Google Contacts; sign in to have your saved addresses show up when you search for friends and family by name.
    • Quickly search for local places by selecting popular categories such as restaurants, bars, cafes, gas stations, etc.
    • Choose between Kilometers or Miles for your preferred distance units.

    Google finally launched a native iOS maps app back in December after Apple booted it from iOS 6. Considering how ill-received Apple Maps was, it was no surprise that Google Maps for iOS took off, topping 10 million downloads in just two days.

    You can snag the update right now on iTunes.

  • AOL’s MapQuest Launches Travel Blogging Feature

    AOL has launched MapQuest Travel Blogs for the web and iOS (via a dedicated app). The feature lets users create blogs of their trips with photos, stories, reviews, etc. According to the company, the Travel Blogs will automatically map out your entire trip.

    “Free travel blogs are the perfect way for you to seamlessly capture all of your memories from your journeys and share your adventures with friends and family,” says MapQuest’s Anke Corbin. “It’s easy to set-up and add photos, stories and more, making it possible for everyone to create their very own travel blog!”

    The offering, of course, includes features to let you share your stuff on social networks or with automatic email updates. The iOS app features offline access.

    Additionally, you can read journals from other people, which might be just as helpful while you’re traveling as keeping your own. There are privacy settings that allow you to share with only who you want to.

    “Travel Blogs is not just a tool to help users document their recent day trip up the coast or two week cross-country excursion,” says AOL’s Brian McMahon. “As part of our library of over 24,000 blogs from Everlater, now part of the MapQuest family, our goal is to help give people valuable and authentic stories that inspire them to set out on their own adventure.”

    No word on a possible Android launch.

  • Nokia Here Maps Now Available On Windows Phone 8

    Back in November, Nokia announced that it would be relaunching its maps service as Here. Despite its silly name, it was an effort on the part of Nokia to become a major player in the Maps app scene. Now the company is starting to roll it out to mobile devices.

    Nokia announced today that its Here app services, which includes Drive, Maps and Transit, will be launching exclusively across Windows Phone 8. That being said, Nokia says the best Here experience will be had on its own Lumia hardware, including the recently announced Nokia Lumia 720 and 520.

    The most exciting part about Here is the integration of Nokia’s AR technology. In essence, a user can hold the phone up, and have the name of restaurants and other locations displayed across the landscape. It might not be exactly useful in a real word setting, but it’s incredibly cool nonetheless.

    Here Maps and other services are now available for Windows Phone 8.

    Here is already available on iOS, and will be launching on Firefox OS later this year. An Android version was apparently available via Amazon’s Appstore for Android, but the link to it is longer working.

  • Google Commissions Studies On Economic Impact Of Geo Services

    Google commissioned studies from Boston Consulting Group and Oxera about the geo services industry and its economic impact on the world. The findings have been summarized in an infographic that Google shared on a couple of its blogs this morning.

    According to the studies, the industry is valued at up to $270 billion per year, paying out $90 billion in wages. The U.S. alone has over 500,000 people employed in the industry.

    “We’re proud of the contributions that Google Maps and Earth, the Google Maps APIs and our Enterprise solutions have made to the geo services industry and to making maps more widely available, but there’s a long way to go,” says VP Google Geo, Brian McLendon.

    Impact of Geo Services

    “1.1 billion hours of travel time saved each year? That’s a lot of time,” says McLendon. “Also, consider UPS, which uses map technology to optimize delivery routes—saving 5.3 million miles and more than 650,000 gallons of fuel in 2011. And every eight seconds, a user hails a taxi with Hailo, which used maps and GPS to deliver more than 1 million journeys in London alone last year. Finally, Zipcar uses maps to connect more than 760,000 customers to a growing fleet of cars in locations around the world.”

    Full reports can be found here.

  • Google Launches Updated Maps For North Korea

    Google Launches Updated Maps For North Korea

    Just a couple weeks after executive chairman Eric Schmidt returned from North Korea, Google has published more detailed maps of the country.

    “The goal of Google Maps is to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-use modern map of the world,” said Google Map Maker senior product manager Jayanth Mysore. “As part of this mission, we’re constantly working to add more detailed map data in areas that traditionally have been mostly blank. For a long time, one of the largest places with limited map data has been North Korea. But today we are changing that with the addition of more detailed maps of North Korea in Google Maps.”

    “To build this map, a community of citizen cartographers came together in Google Map Maker to make their contributions such as adding road names and points of interest,” added Mysore. This effort has been active in Map Maker for a few years and today the new map of North Korea is ready and now available on Google Maps. As a result, the world can access maps of North Korea that offer much more information and detail than before.”

    Google Maps North Korea

    Google acknowledges that the map is not perfect, and it is encouraging people to continue using Map Maker to help it improve.

    The updated maps are now live .

  • Mapping The Moon And Mars Discussed At Google

    Google put up a new At Google talk with Ross Beyer from the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute and Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center, who discusses making maps to explore the Earth, the Moon and Mars.

    “High-quality planetary maps and 3D terrain models have become essential for NASA to plan exploration missions and conduct science,” says Google in the video description. “This is particularly true for robotic missions to the Moon and Mars, where maps are used for site selection, traverse planning, and planetary science. This is also important for studies of climate change on Earth, where maps are used to track environmental change (such as polar ice movement).”

    “In this talk, we will describe how the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames builds highly accurate, large-scale planetary maps and 3D terrain models from orbital imagery using novel statistical stereographic and photometric techniques,” it says. “Orbital imagery includes data captured by the Apollo missions, on-going NASA and international missions, and commercial providers (such as Digital Globe). The mapmaking software that we have developed (Vision Workbench, Ames Stereo Pipeline, Neo-Geography Toolkit) is available as open-source and is widely used by scientists and mission planners.”

    More recent At Google Talks here.

  • Foursquare Sees 500M Check-ins in 3 Months, Makes Cool Map to Showcase Them

    Foursquare Sees 500M Check-ins in 3 Months, Makes Cool Map to Showcase Them

    Foursquare has just put up a new blog post that, among other things, touts the service’s ability to create personalized recommendations, build a location layer for the world, and connect people with all of the places they visit. That’s why tons of appmakers rely on Foursquare to power the location elements of their apps. Cool, nothing wrong with a little bit of self-promotion.

    But the really interesting thing that Foursquare unveiled is a map of all of the check-ins (worldwide) over the last three months.

    Foursquare did something similar to this back in November, following Hurricane Sandy. They created a timelapse visualization of how the storm affected check-ins in lower Manhattan.

    But this new map allows you to zoom in and out on the entire world of check-ins, and even search for specific locations. You can even layer on satellite view and map view atop the check-in data. But it’s a lot more fun to simply look at cities’ structures based on check-ins alone.

    For instance, my hometown of Lexington, KY is set up like a wheel with a bunch of spokes. A large road circles the city, and each main road spreads out from the center (downtown) and intersects that main highway. When you look at the city of Lexington on Foursquare’s check-in map, you see this pattern reflected (the main population centers and businesses appear on these roads).

    Other, bigger cities also look really cool. Let’s look at Moscow:

    You can play around with the check-in map here.

    That map is based on check-ins from the last three months, which total 500,000,000. Yep, a half a billion check-ins in 3 months. That’s a pretty impressive figure.

  • Google Dispatches Street View Cars to Sandy-Ravaged Areas, Some Residents Incensed

    Is Google simply doing its job, and providing accurate Street View maps to its millions of users around the world? Or are they being incredibly insensitive?

    Some residents in Stalen Island are incensed over Google’s attempt to document the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. The company has deployed a fleet of their Street View cars to snap shots of the devastation that took place over two months ago.

    The NY Post first reported on the controversy, and got quotes from New Yorkers such as:

    “They are putting us wiped out on the map! They’re going to call it a wasteland! I don’t like Google driving around my property. What are they doing it for? To drop the property value?”

    More people were concerned about future home values:

    “If that’s the way it’s going to be in the computer for years, showing the depreciation of a neighborhood, that’s not right. If someone wants to move, they look online, so that’s not good for the neighborhood. If that goes online, it’s going to drag [down] the real-estate market.”

    This is not the first time that Google has made a point to visit an area after its landscape had been severely altered by a natural disaster. A few month after the 2011 tsunami, Google announced that they would be dispatching their Street View teams to eastern Japan to take photos of locations ravaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

    In December, they unveiled the fruits of that project: 44,000 kilometers of driving that yielded stunning before and after comparisons of the modified landscape. At the time, they said that this would “serve as a digital archive of the power of mother nature for future generations.”

    “When looking at images of the magnificent cities side-by-side with images of the ruins left in their place, this additional context demonstrates how truly life-changing this tragedy has been for those who live there and witnessed the destruction of their homes, neighborhoods and even entire districts,” they added.

    Just last month, Google added some indoor Street View imagery of the areas.

    Google echoed that sentiment in a statement concerning Hurricane Sandy imagery:

    “The Street View team is currently redriving affected areas of New York City. We hope this accurate, updated imagery that will soon be available in Google Maps will help people around the world better understand the extent of the damage and the importance of coming together as a community to aid in the recovery efforts.”

    What do you think? Insensitive? Important? I wasn’t personally affected by the Hurricane and have no real ties to its devastating aftermath other than the general empathy that most people feel for their fellow humans – but I think it’s important that we have a historical record of the impact of such natural disasters. But I can certainly understand some people’s frustration. At least Congress finally did the right thing. Finally.

  • Google Maps May Be Spurring iOS 6 Adoption After All

    Apple no doubt suffered some humiliation at the hands of Google this past week. Google finally released their own maps app for iOS, after Apple purged them from the ecosystem with the release of iOS 6 – and it was a huge hit. As you probably remember, Apple replaced Google Maps with their own Apple Maps, an inferior product that drew wide criticism from users.

    The silver lining for Apple regarding the Google Maps release was that maybe, just maybe it would finally push people who were on the fence into upgrading to iOS 6.

    But initially reports indicated that wasn’t the case. Google Maps’ effect on iOS 6 adoption seemed negligible, at best. Chitika found that in the first day, the adoption rate climbed less than 0.2%. Not exactly the boost that was expected.

    Apparently, we simply needed to give people time – like a couple of days. A new report suggests that Google Maps actually is having an impact on iOS 6 adoption – and it’s significant.

    This data comes to us from MoPub (via BGR) They looked at around 12,000 of the iOS applications in their network and saw an astounding 29% increase in iOS 6 adoption in the first five days after Google released its Google Maps for iPhone app.

    “We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it’s related to Google Maps,” said MoPub CEO Jim Payne. “It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available.”

    Of course, this data comes from the clients of a specific company, and the data that pegged Google Maps as an exaggerated motivator also came from a specific analytics company. The point being these are not necessarily 100% representative of all iOS users at large.

    But it does suggest that iOS 6 adoption was spurred on by the re-addition of Google Maps to the iOS ecosystem – eventually.

    Google Maps for iPhone app was a big hit among iOS users in general. That we can be sure of. Google says that it saw over 10 million downloads in its first 48 hours in the App Store.

  • Apple Looking at Foursquare to Help with Apple Maps [REPORT]

    Everyone is looking for a way to incorporate personalized, local results into their location services. The new Google Maps for iOS features ratings, price, location, hours, and photo information for hundreds of thousands of businesses. Facebook just launched a huge redesign of it “Nearby” feature that turns it into a true location recommendation tool. Facebook is a new but potentially huge player in local search, considering the trove of user data they have already amassed and the amount coming in new every day.

    But don’t think that Apple is going to sit back and watch Google and Facebook dominate the local search game. Just because their Maps product was initially cast aside by early users and frankly embarrassed by Google’s product, it doesn’t mean they are going to throw in the towel on the whole project.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is in preliminary talks with Foursquare to acquire their location data, in order to incorporate it into Apple Maps.

    Foursquare, which has been around for over three years, boasts over 3 billion total check-ins and millions of tips for local businesses all across the world.

    Although Apple has seen its share of criticism for rushing out an not-ready-for-primetime maps app (most of it rightfully earned), the app does have some things going for it. First, it’s pretty – there’s no denying that. Second, it’s the default maps app integrated into the OS. No matter how good a third-party maps app is, some people will struggle to venture outside the walls. Lastly, Apple has been fixing a lot of the more-egregious errors inside Apple Maps – misplaced landmarks, terrible directions, roads that aren’t there, etc.

    Adding Foursquare location data to Apple Maps could be a very smart move for the company, who has and will continue to have the task of convincing people to stay/come back to their product. Saying that you can deliver top-notch personalized local results is a step in the right direction.

    And for Foursquare, it would give them more exposure. We recently learned that the company will only generate about $2 million in revenue this year. Partnering with Apple may give them the reach that they’ve needed for awhile now.

  • Google Maps for iPhone is Good for Apple, Bad for Apple

    Yesterday’s launch of Google Maps for iPhone is clearly a win for iPhone users. Apple Maps, despite being rather pretty, failed when it comes to what really matters. Misplaced landmarks, improper directions, life-threatening errors – the problems were frequent and well-documented. Finally, Google has swooped in with their maps product that draws on superior data obtained from years of improving the product. Of course it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn good.

    And it’s clearly a win for Google. Of course they get to stick it to Apple by coming in and saving the day – but for Google it’s more about money. The launch of their native maps app for iOS means one big thing: ads, ads, and ads. Not only ads, but ads based of locations data (it’s a maps app, remember?).

    But according to one analyst, the launch of Google Maps for iPhone is a mixed bag for Apple.

    First, the bad. Not only is Apple forced to accept the fact, once and for all, that they failed in rooting Google from their operating system (which was one of the main points of developing their own maps app in the first place), but it’s now going to be harder to make that maps product better.

    “Users’ input is critical in improving the quality of the application, and Apple will now receive less feedback on its own Maps app what with iPhone owners flocking to Google Maps,” says Needham & Company’s Charlie Wolf.

    He’s right, of course. In the wake of the initial Apple Maps hullabaloo, Tim Cook told iOS users that they were better off using a competing maps product, as Apple Maps simply wasn’t up to their standards. He also asked users to help them make the app better by submitting feedback and letting them know where they screwed up. If tons of people switch over to Google Maps, millions of little unpaid scouts leave Apple’s employ.

    Then again, Wolf points out the there is a silver lining for Apple – more interest in the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.

    “It has the potential to attract a meaningful number of new users to the iPhone who had previously shunned it because of Apple’s well-publicized misstep in releasing a less-than-market-ready product in the first place.”

    There’s a chance we’ll hear plenty of the “I can finally get the iPhone 5 (or upgrade to iOS 6) now that there’s Google Maps on it” sentiment over the coming weeks. A recent study did find that Apple Maps’ problems weren’t really a hinderance to people’s desire for the iPhone 5, however.

    Whatever the effect on Apple, we at least know that it’s going to have an effect. Google Maps for iPhone is already making a big splash; it’s the top app in the App Store right now and has been since about 7 hours after its launch.

    [via AppleInsider]