Google Maps

Interactive map and directions service for users in the U.S.

[moheybee]

[maps.google.com...]
[google.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

Your browser is not supported by Google Maps just yet. We currently support the following browsers:
IE 5.5+ (download: Windows)
Firefox 0.8+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)
Netscape 7.1+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)
Mozilla 1.4+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)

We are working on supporting Safari. Regardless of your browser type, you must have JavaScript enabled to use Google Maps.

We recommend you download one of the browsers above, or you can try to load Google Maps in your current browser.

[lammert]

Interesting service, but needs some work. I searched for Italy (a small town in Texas I visited some years ago) in "Go to a location" and there were many related results including "Alcoholics Anonymous", but not the town itself.

I wonder if the semantic matching of Google thinks Italy is directly related to wine and alcohol?

When typing "Italy, TX" it could find the town and it included all the small streets that I knew of.

[Hester]

It doesn't work in Opera, apparently.

[mikemcs]

Best map viewing experience I have seen yet.

.....Same thing we do every night Pinky....

[HughMungus]

Another beta.

[goodroi]

Its a good service and I like that they attempted to tie it into local search. But the user experience is poor. You need a postal address to search by location. If you enter something like "empire state building" it will show you results in Kansas (probably because the default search is Kansas City) . If you search by business, you need the business name or a very generic term like "hotel". If you search for "cheap hotel in ny" you will be given a cheap junk yard in ny.

They need to make this more robust and able to handle different user input. IMHO I would also auggest a breaking out the search box, one box for location and one for search term.

[Slone]

Another Beta

:D Now that is funny!

I actually see a lot of potential here...
> Google maps tied to local search
> Offer ads down to a specific blocks to those traveling to that area.
> More interaction needed as well and more important browser support. Whew... it took so much just to use Gmaps.

I think offering 2 versions so as not to bog down the user experience. Basic Maps and Business/Travel maps.

[amznVibe]

Someone has been nice enough to dissect Google maps for us (much like the gmail and select analysis)
[jgwebber.blogspot.com...]

[Oliver Henniges]

A very valuable source, thx amznVibe.

Given the search results are truely often beta: What can we do to help google find this location-based-information?

I guess in most countries a page containing address and other information is a must at least for business-websites, but this isn't yet covered in any w3c-standard.