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Google Maps Graduates

Posted by Zonk on from the happy-granulation dept.

Anonymous writes "It appears that Google's dynamic, interactive map program, Google Maps, has finally made it out of the labs. Now it has merged with Google Local and has been updated on the homepage. Another great stride in Google's quest to conquer the internet." Graduation covered by PC Magazine. From the article: "Now, when you query Google Local (local.google.com), a map pops up, displaying the many businesses and services that match you query. If you search on "Pizza in San Francisco," for instance, it displays a map of San Francisco sprinkled with red tabs pointing to various pizza parlors. It also lists each restaurant down the right side of your browser."

4 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Re:pizza parlours by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Ice cream parlor, soda parlor, tea parlor.

    Basically it describes the type of atmosphere. It has fallen out of favor in the United States and thus tends to indicate a slightly anachronistic feel (much like pub, tavern and diner). Like the word diner (used as a type of restaurant, not the original meaning of a railroad deployed diner), the phrase "parlor" tends to have a 50s feel and new places with either parlor or diner in their name tend toward an American Graffiti idealized view of the 50s.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  2. Still needs work by crow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are still plenty of things that need to be done to improve Google Maps:

    *) Better routes. MapQuest still tends to provide better driving directions. They need to tune it better to select the best route.

    *) Newer images. The satellite imagery is about 5 years old in my area, and others are older and lower resolution. They need a consistent plan to update the images.

    *) Multiple-stop routes. I want to be able to plan a route that goes from point A to point B to point C. Similarly, I want to be able to look at the route from A to B and force it to take an alternate path. So just how much longer is that senic route?

  3. Yeah this is no good! by mindaktiviti · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At work I'm running at 1024x768 and the white space is just huge compared to a screen with 1600x1200 resolution. Two thumbs down. Bring back the old google maps!

  4. Re:I want my Google Earth! by slashflood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I just wish Google Earth was available for MacOS or Linux.

    Funny, that the Google Earth Server runs SuSE Linux, but the clients are still Windows only.