Written by Peter Murphy on Sunday, November 18, 2007

Google Maps for Mobile Updated

I forgot about this after I saw it yesterday. Then, today when I got home I noticed the little red new, next to the maps link on my Google homepage and thought I’d check it out. I don’t have a GPS device but Google maps has gotten me out of bad spots before. Yeah I admit it, typical male, I’d rather gnaw my own arm off than ask for directions.

So what is version 1.7.1.4 of Google maps offering, to further ensure my masculine facade is devoid of threat?

Contacts integration and GPS functionality make this version of Google Maps, available for Windows Mobile 2003 and higher, even easier to use.
Now you can download Google Maps on your Palm OS 5 device.
Ever since we launched Google Maps, we’ve been working hard to make it better. Here are a few of the features we’ve added:
Real-time traffic conditions
See where the congestion is, and estimate delays in over 30 major US metropolitan areas.
Favorite places and routes
Save time (and avoid sore thumbs) by keeping a list of residential or business locations, and driving routes.
Insta-KB-o-meter
Monitor your data consumption in real-time — just look to the top right portion of your phone screen while using Google Maps.
Enhanced business info
After selecting a particular business, select the "Details" tab for hours of operation, hotel amenities, and more.
BlackBerry support

So what does all that mean to your average traveler?

Well not that much when you first have a look all of the regular search functions are still there, it’s an easy tap and type procedure to find and look at any location, or even find services in your vicinity, like Doctors or Pizza.

The biggest adds in this application seem to be contact support, you have an option to "look up contact" which is neat, any of your contacts that have address information included can be directly searched for from the menu/options in Maps. It’s really cool you can look up your friends or yourself and zoom in and see if you were out in the yard when the satellite went over.

Now that’s a great function, and a real aid for getting routes, if you don’t have to manually type in the address but can just retrieve it from your contacts, especially on the road.

GPS support is also added and as it seems to be a standard now, that new devices have GPS built in. Another example of Google staying on top of current market trends, while also catering to the hard core GPS users who have had to look to other companies for applications that cost money, in the past. As I said I don’t have GPS but when you have a look at the options, if you do Google has built auto configuration into the new maps, to work in with current GPS enabled devices. If you are using a third party GPS enhancement the manual settings let you set the port and transfer speeds for satellite download. The My Location function actually shows you on the Google map, your position highlighted by a blue dot, and can either be an update for your estimated time of arrival or just a pointer if your on foot.