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Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Google Maps for Mobile UK
By Tony Ruscoe

Nathan Weinberg reports on the InsideGoogle blog that Google Maps for Mobile UK was announced at a London press briefing today.

Personally, I’ve been using the US version of Google Maps on my mobile in the UK for around the last four months and it’s been useful on several occasions.

One of the things I’ve never understand about Google is why they take so long to release services and applications for the UK market – especially when the actual content doesn’t appear to have been localized. When selecting the “Find Location” option, the interface displays this US example:

Move the map to:
(e.g. 90210, dallas, 10 main st boston ma)

I guess it’s easy to forget to localize UI strings like that but there’s no excuse for asking me to select a favorite rather than favourite. Even the online demo gets that right! In fact, one of the few localized features I could find in the UK version of the application was that it centered the map on London after installation. And I don’t live anywhere near there!

Come on, Google. If you’re going to take months to release localized versions of your applications, at least localize them properly for us Brits!

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