14 DAY TRIAL // Google Maps is one of the company's best known products and, while it's not exactly neglected, most updates tend to have to do with the underlying data and infrastructure or some new features bolted on. This time, Google is working on updating the rather aging interface of its online mapping service, as an ongoing test seems to indicate.
Google is currently testing a new interface for the Maps layers. Big buttons complete with thumbnails are used to switch between the main modes in Google Maps, Map, Satellite and the new Earth View, as Google Operating System found.
The two buttons presumably change depending on which view you are currently using, displaying the other two options.
The drop-down menu used for toggling the various layers available in Google Maps has also been revamped in the test. The new menu includes all the usual layers, Photos, Wikipedia, Webcams but also more recent additions like Bicycling, Buzz and so on.
The Traffic layer, which gets a dedicated in the current interface, will be integrated with the rest of the options.
What's even more interesting is that the revamped drop-down menu also includes additional options such as labels and even the current queries.
Regularly, the queries done in a session in Google Maps are displayed at the bottom left corner and the search results and map markers can be toggled on/off for any of them. That section also lists currently active layers.
With the Google Maps in testing, all this information is included in the layer selector menu. This makes sense from an user experience point of view, this way all the layers, be them built-in or searches, can be enabled or disabled from the same place.
Google regularly runs tens of live tests and experiments for its products. These are usually rolled out to only a small number of users, ensuring that if something goes wrong it won't affect too many people.