Thursday, October 6, 2005

Google Local and Maps Merge

Google Local and Google Maps have merged and are now one and the same thing. That also means that Google Maps is now (sort of) one of the few links shown atop the input box on the Google homepage (the other at the moment are Images, Groups, News, and Froogle). Search Engine Watch quotes Google’s Brett Taylor, who says “Google maps has always integrated local listings, and I think this takes it to the level we always have seen it from the engineering level.”

Here’s what Google Local and Google Maps looked like before. As you can see, the current input fields have been even more simplified; whereas before, Google offered three input fields (“What”, “Where”, and “Remember this location”) it’s now all a single text box. Also, the information box moved from the right to the left (I think I slightly preferred it to the right side, but that may just because I was getting used to it).

Searching for [hotels new york, ny] and clicking on the marker shows a two-tabbed info box (I’m unsure if this will be available via the Maps API, too).

Google Local and Maps Mer ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (0)

>> More posts

Advertisement