Mountain View, California — In it relentless quest to capture the mobile sphere, search engine titan Google has just officially released Google Maps 5.5 for Android, propelling in many more options to play with for people who like “checking in” when they get to places. It is especially for people who go places.
Google turns its attention to minute details by adding to the Places pages, transit pages, and Google Latitude. The latest edition also provides a “Check-in” and “Rate and Review” buttons to Place page to make it more convenient to check in and rate something.
Thus, when you are surveying a Place page from Google Maps on your Android device, you now have the option to check in to that place or submit ratings and reviews. This makes leaving a review much easier to access directly from Maps.
In addition, another important attribute includes the option to modify your home/work address for Latitude and restyled transit station that make life easier when you are taking the bus or train to get around. So, if you are a Google Latitude user, you can now also change/modify your home or work address by editing them right within Latitude.
Here is what Google says: “We have made it easier to check in and out of places, rate various locations, and get transit information with Google Maps 5.5 for Android.”
Another crafty addition is to a self-stalking feature in Google Latitude. If you are the type of statistics maniac who likes to track your whereabouts to see where you spend your time, you will appreciate that Google’s location history service, which recently hooked up with Latitude could start tracking how much time you spend at work, home, and abroad, but now directly from the mobile app, you can set a new place as work or home.
Transit directions have had a bit of an overhaul, now showing which lines service any given subway station. Meanwhile, commuters looking up schedules for public transportation can get a snapshot of routes for all lines serving a location (pictured below), not just the one Google has calculated you need. You will also be able to see links to nearby transit stations. Stops also show the next upcoming departures. There is also a lot more stuff in the Transit section, although that is only relevant for a few public transport operators in Europe.
Moreover, Google Maps for mobile offers a lot of great location-based functions, including free turn-by-turn directions, social (but secure) location-sharing through Latitude, finding categorized points of interest, zooming down to Street View to see what spots on a road look like, biking directions… the list goes on.
It is a great app, and if you do not use it, you probably should. You can collect the new version of Google Maps for Android here to check out the improvements. It requires that your device be running Android 1.6 or above. You can also read the full post at Google’s Mobile blog for more information.