Google Maps Mobile Update Adds Street View, Walking Directions, and More Accurate MyLocation

Google has released a pair of updates to its Google Maps Mobile (GMM) which add new features and refine older ones.

In the latest release, Street View and Walking Directions were added, and the MyLocation feature was improved to be more accurate.

Street View

Google's Street View is the ability to see a 360 degree view of a point that was searched using Google Maps. This feature from the desktop version is now part of the mobile application. After completing a search for a restaurant, business, or other location, users can choose Street View from the menu and see either a thumbnail or a full-screen image of the surrounding environment.

Walking Directions

Walking Directions is a new feature which adjusts the directions it supplies to users from a driving point of view to one of walking, adjusting for speed and logical routes on foot. This feature for GMM is still in beta.

MyLocation

Google launched MyLocation some months ago as a GPS-like feature. Using cell tower triangulation, the user's smartphone is shown on Google Maps to an approximate location, and from that point searches can be made.

The most recent update for MyLocation adds considerable accuracy by displaying a smaller circle where the number of cells and Google's databases combine to give a more accurate view of where the user is. This feature works best in densely populate areas where there are more cellular towers from which Google Maps can compute triangulation data. What this means is that local searches and directions can be more accurate to the current location than previously.

Users don't need to update their version of the Google Maps Mobile application to take advantage of the MyLocation enhancement.

Other Updates to GMM

In addition to the already mentioned updates, Google Maps Mobile adds business reviews and improvements in search speed.

This update is currently for the Java-based version of Google Maps Mobile. Native clients such as the Symbian, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile clients may see these updates down the line.

For more information and to download Google Maps Mobile for any mobile device, visit the Google Maps Mobile website from a PC or mobile web browser.