Los Angeles — Global search engine leader Google, striving to promote one of its incredible Google Maps Navigation Service in Australia and New Zealand, over the weekend launched turn-by-turn navigation capabilities for Australian Android users, with the company launching the product at its Sydney headquarters.
Google Maps Navigation is an added feature of Google Maps for Android that furnishes voice-guided turn-by-turn directions. Now, Android users in both countries can take advantage of the Google turn-by-turn service through the Google Maps application in their smartphone.
Google Navigation Service is available in United States for long time. Interestingly, the search engine giant also recently released the Walking Navigation Service in United States. Android users in Australian and New Zealand will also have access to Walking Navigation Service of the company.
But, the best part about the service is — It is free.
Rather than having to print out directions in advance, or having a co-rider read aloud from a list of directions, users can now use their smartphone to help them guide to their destination directly, Google Maps’ Australian product manager Andrew Foster said.
The turn-by-turn navigation technology empowers users to navigate roads using specific, detailed results along with the GPS technology contained in their smartphones. But Foster said, the technology will combine some cloud elements to eliminate the risk of signal drop outs.
“All the routing takes place in the cloud. It employs the same technology that is on desktop. Users can add stops and change the route accordingly,” Foster said in a statement.
Navigation has many of the features a standalone GPS device has but one feature it does not include is the speed limit at which you are allowed to travel at.
The feature is currently available for Android phones only. The iPhone version of Google Maps for Mobile can inform you how to get from A to B, but on Android it now provides speech instructions telling you where to go, 3D views of maps and automatic re-routing if you venture off course.
The “Route Info” function enables you to view a choice of several routes, including the distance of each route, and an estimate of how long it will take to drive. In-car GPS devices like those from Navman offer similar features. You can also view the destination using Google’s Street View, and search maps by voice.
And accidentally, “If your internet connection drops out en route, you can still navigate [thanks to caching], as long as you have followed the original instructions. When the connection comes back, we can reroute you if you have made a mistake,” Foster added.
At launch, the service is only available on Android-powered devices but could later be extended to smartphones like Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry as well. It has the potential to kill off a number of paid apps that are on offer.
The service is available for smartphones running Google’s Android operating system 1.6 and later. Also, Google now includes its recommendation feature which allows you to add ratings and view comments about nearby businesses like hotels and restaurants. Not only that, but Google also pulls in recommendations from Tripadvisor and Booking.com, two incredibly useful sites for planning and researching holiday travels.
It also has the capability to collaborate your map searches between your desktop PC and phone, plus integration with email and calendar entries. To use it users will need to go to the Android Market and download Google Maps.