Mountain View, California — Google on Monday unveiled its updated Maps for Android (version 4.4), an upgrade that includes easier access to places of attraction nearby for Android phones, making its Place Pages business listings more usable. The new application adds a dedicated tool for seeking out local points of interest.
Google has already made around half-a-dozen upgrades to Google Maps on Android in as many months. This update gets Google Maps a new logo, and the Navigation features got more stronger and powerful with a dedicated “Places” icon which empowers users to quickly look up nearby places and is clearly aimed at Yelp and one of the features that differentiated many standalone GPS devices.
Google Maps for mobile 4.4 includes a new “Places” icon in the app launcher that lets you look up nearby places like coffee shops, ATMs, or gas stations. Press and drag it to the home screen for easy access “when you are looking for a restaurant, shoe store, movie theater or any other type of local business,” Google wrote in a blog post.
As Google described in its blog, it wants to speed up search for things that are nearby. Its Places tool within Google Maps has always played a role of magic wand for users looking to find out what is in the vicinity. Now, that function stands apart as its own app.
As soon as the update is installed, (and restarted your Android phone), a new Places icon in your list of applications will become visible. By pressing the Places button on the main menu opens a new search tool. The search tool has a standard search bar up at the top, which Google says can be filled with typed or spoken queries.
The search engine leader has added a bunch of default categories, such as Restaurants, Coffee, Bars, Hotels, Attractions, ATMs, and Gas Stations, but users can also add their own for frequent searches. An “Add” button helpfully allows you to create your own shortcuts for often searched terms, like the post office, movie theater, or bakery.
Surely, Google will not let slip-of any advertising opportunity — searching with the new Places interface provides a sponsored link and facts about businesses in the neighborhood, including an address, rating (if available), user reviews, and whether the business is currently open or closed for the day.
The app employs GPS, so it is location aware. Users will not need to enter location details when using Places, as it already senses where they are. Press any of the categories for a quick search of that topic.
However, it comes as no surprise that the new feature may be in competition with Yelp. Google Maps searches Yelp, in addition to CitySearch, GrubHub, Yahoo, and other sources, for particulars about each business. For Google, amassing data from around the Web is an essential key to its Place Pages having the most complete information on a location available, and winning more users. In fact, one of the nicest side effects of Google’s aggregation is that it links to GrubHub, Menutopia, and Zagat for menu pages, an often-elusive and yet important portion of restaurant research.
This updated edition of Google Maps for mobile 4.4 is compatible with Android version 1.6 and above. BlackBerry users should stay tuned for a similar update that is “coming soon,” according to a Google blog post.