14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that it will bring a brand new experience to Maps for mobile devices, both Android and iOS based.
Daniel Graf, director of Google Maps mobile, said today, during the Google I/O 2013 Conference that Google has reinvented online mapping and that it has become known for its accuracy.
Maps for mobile now gives you the opportunity, when you look for a place near you, to view extensive information regarding those locations.
For instance, if you’re looking for a restaurant near you, you can view an overall rating given by other people who visited, but also ratings that were given by your friends.
Additionally, Google has integrated data from Zagat, a famous restaurant rating website. Thus, you can get professional reviews and ratings for the place you want to visit.
Also, Maps for mobile devices will come with integrated offers for various businesses. For instance, you can see special offers the Starbucks near you have.
While Google has some partners so far, they said more are to come soon.
Additionally, on tablets, you can now also view internal maps of thousands of buildings from all over the world.
Furthermore, since Maps is often used by people who navigate their cars or who travel by bus, Google announced live coverage of traffic from all over the world.
This means, that if there’s an incident on your regular route, Google Maps will redirect you to a new path so you can avoid traffic jams.
Another feature that Maps will have is “Explore.” If you’re new in town or go visiting, you never know the places where you should go.
With that thought in mind, Google Maps Explore comes with several categories of activities that you might be looking for. For instance, you can search for restaurants, bars, shopping malls, entertainment options or hotels.
Each place recommended to you is further enhanced with Street View pictures, ratings and reviews.
Google boasts that it covers over a million transit stops all over the world, as well as 50 billion kilometers of turn-by-turn directions.