Google Maps is releasing an update, which is rolling out incrementally to users. This update provides us with a lot more utility than we’ve come to know with Maps, improving everything from navigation to offline maps. There are a lot of working parts to the update, but it should give all of us more reason than we already had for using it.
When using Maps for turn-by-turn directions, it will now tell you which lane to be in so you don’t miss an exit. That’s helpful for “left turns” that are really soft lefts into various exits, leaving you guessing and glancing at your phone. Google is also making offline maps easier to save, find, and use. Once you get a map you think you might need when offline (great for hiking), save it and it’s accessible from the menu.
If you’re in a city that offers Uber, you’ll find using it a lot easier in Maps. You can compare your Uber trip to public transit to find which is the best route for you. If Uber works out to be the route you’d like to take, you can jump to the app from within Maps.
Transit results are improving, with Maps now showing total walking time along with the next scheduled bus or train. Maps will also show departure times for trains, so you know how long you have to fool around in a city before needing to get back.
There are a lot more little tweaks for Maps, like updated Restaurant listings and starred locations so you don’t miss a place you’d like to visit on vacation. Whether you’re on the go or staying home, Maps wants to get you exploring. Lane guidance, though limited to US and Canada, is easily one of the more useful tweaks here, but the Uber thing is also quite interesting.
Source: Google
I have been working on a taxi hailing app for about 8-9 months. The news of uber being integrated into Google maps outrages me. This directly effects my business and all other 3rd party hailing companies. This can’t be legal! Unless Google integrates other hailing companies as well… Offers some kind of deal to allow any hailing company to be integrated directly into the Google maps app. All I know is, lately Google has been doing a lot of integrating of services into their apps completely going back on their motto “dont be evil” they offer their apis for free, but they are becoming less useful as they deprecate certain services causing headaches for us developers and the integration and combining services into their own apps makes it very hard to compete. This is what Microsoft did and got sued for… Google is starting to turn me off and I am questioning their true motives. They have a lot of developers on their side and a lot of power and now it looks like they are starting to close the doors on developers that gave them years of support and backing. I am starting to see how they continue to combine their apis and services and this is bad for developers as we lose out every time Google decides to do this… So now uber is integrated within Google maps making all other hailing apps less likely to be used or downloaded as users will just use uber as it’s already there.
Google need to reinstate the features they axed after v6 before tarting up v7. Things like zoom buttons, terrain layer, tape measure. I for one will remain on v6 until they do so.