Google recently revamped its Maps application, and although it looked great, it was missing one substantial feature that had been included in every other version of the app to date – the beloved scale bar. Now the team at Mountain View HQ have pushed out an update on Google Play for Maps, bringing back the measurement bar which allows you to see distances on a map.
Today Google refreshed its promoted search results for local business in Google Maps on both Android and iOS. When you search for a business, Google will now show ads for merchants that have paid in a bottom banner. Like Google search on the web, it will be obvious that the listing is a promotion.
For Nexus users who love taking Photo Spheres, Google just made submitting and uploading them on Google Maps a little bit easier.
Prior to this revamp, users could only upload the 360-degree images from their Android devices, but now they will have the option to submit and view Photo Spheres from the web as well.
We got our first look of the redesigned Google Maps at Google I/O in May. Since then the project has been in closed beta for invitees only, but Google announced today that it is opening up the new Google Maps beta to all users.
The new Google Maps will come with a simplified UI, as well as new features like real-time traffic, dynamic re-routing, reviews from Zagat and there will even be a dedicated Google Maps app for iPad. To get access all you have to do is sign-up over at maps.google.com/preview. If you hate it, you can always switch back.
Here’s the original preview video of the new features:
Earlier today, Google released a major update for the Google Maps for Android that comes with a new UI, and a tablet optimized mode. The Navigation feature has also been enhanced with dynamic re-routing and live traffic updates. However, the new Maps is seemingly missing a few features including Latitude and Offline Maps.
While Google has announced that it will be killing off latitude on August 9th, the ability to save maps for offline use is still present but has been hidden.
