An Even Better Way to Find Places Nearby
With six updates in six months, Google Maps for Android has been getting plenty of new features, both big and small. A continued focus with each update has been on giving you better ways to find places nearby. In the most recent updates, Maps has gotten features like swiping between search results and info like photos, reviews, and more helpful content on the result pages. With today’s launch of Google Maps for mobile 4.4, we’re introducing an even easier way to find places around you: a dedicated Places icon that lets you quickly look up nearby places and pick a place to go using updated Place Pages, just like on your computer.
On Android-powered phones with Google Maps 4.4, you’ll find the new Places icon in the app launcher with the rest of your apps. Press and drag it right onto your home screen to use it when you’re looking for a restaurant, shoe store, movie theater or any other type of local business. You’ll get a detailed list of all the nearest places and can choose one to learn more about it on its Place Page.
Search for several convenient types of places with the default categories or add your own for your most frequent searches. You can also use the search bar at the top to type or speak any query. I tend to use the “coffee” search a lot, but I’ve also looked for “gas stations” on the road, “ice cream shops” in my neighborhood, and even specific places like “Chelsea Market” on a recent trip to New York.
Of course, you’ll often want to learn more before deciding where to go. With updated Place Pages, you should be able to find all you need to know about a place, whether you’re wandering into a new restaurant or deciding from your couch. In addition to photos and reviews, Place Pages now have a bunch of new details, such as prices, parking and menu links to inform your quest for the perfect steak. You’ll also notice that the search results list now highlights business opening hours in addition to compass direction and distance — consider it your late night caffeine radar.
Google Maps for mobile 4.4 is available now for Android 1.6 and above. Just search for Google Maps in Market or tap here from your phone. The Place Page and search result updates are coming soon for BlackBerry users so keep an eye out for an update at m.google.com/maps (from your BlackBerry Browser) or on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
Visit our Help Center to learn more, ask questions in our Help Forum, or give us suggestions and vote on other people’s on the Mobile Product Ideas page.
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The call button is greyed out in places for me too. Please fix! Running on HTC Desire on T-Mobile in UK.
Yet another gMaps update and still no Navigation support for Brazil.
Please add it asap! Thanks.
I second the motion to bring back the black background, at least as an option. It was so much more professional looking, but was also much easier to read and less offensive to people in dark environments. The white version is garish and grating by comparison.
Hi, I am with 2.1 and I have not the ADD button :-/ That could be useful as I could cretate new spots and why not choose among categories or sub categories like:
- night shops
- night clubs
- sport facilities
- museums
- food shop
- antique
Well, a Foursquare/Gowalla sort of
It's great to see mobile devices getting great functionality. Now, PLEASE focus a fraction of your attention on updating Google Maps for Palm webOS. Maps on webOS has been horribly slow and hard to use for a long time. Third-party webOS solutions using your API are showing that speed and features are easy enough to add but the Google branded app really ought to have basic usable functionality.
Maybe this is a dumb question but how can I use places to find something where I'm going to be later? I see no way to change the location other than going there. Searching for a location (like an address) takes you to map search. I'd like a menu item "set location" or better yet, allows me to got to the map and tap a location.
I verified on two HTC Droid Incredible phones that the call button is always greyed out, even though the number is listed right under the name of the place. This used to work with the previous version's search results.
Very nice app, but it is unfortunately limited to the Android platform. I used the geolocation feature at http://www.unitymobile.com to stay close to my customers, it publishes to all platforms and devices (Symbian, Windows, BlackBerry, Android, iPhone).
The call button is now grayed out on the Droid Incredible. I rebooted the phone following the upgrade.
Damn, it's so cool and so annoying that you cannot update Maps on HTC phones, I hate HTC for that… >:(
its a great features provided by google i never knew that.
home businss
Just to Confirm:
1) IT NEEDS A REBOOT FIRST ON HTC SENSE BASED DEVICES SUCH AS THE DESIRE…
2) WE NEED AN option TO CHOOSE BETWEEN BLACK OR WHITE BACKGROUND, NOW THAT YOU HAVE CHANGED TO WHITE. This will kill the battery, and doesn't fit in with every single other application on my Desire…
What about iPhone? BooHoo
(
Thanks guys, you ruined the project that I was developing for the Android Market after one month of work
Why is traffic info available on Maps for Android in Barcelona, but not on the desktop or any other device?
the search for ATMs does not works in the UK – I get lots of matches on ARMS (pubs). ATM works OK – so how can I change the search string?
Great, but please change the background color back to black (as it was before). It was looking great on a samsung galaxy s and its SAMOLED-Display…not mentioning the better powersaving with dark background on that sort of AMOLED-Displays…
If you could add an option to set the background color to white/black (so everyone is satisfied), it would be great.
Thank you in advance!
I've got the same problem that the "Call" button is greyed out on business listings on my T-Mobile Pulse running Android 2.1. Annoying!
Is there a way I can uninstall the Places and Latitude apps? I will not use either of them, and they are just cluttering up my tray.
Would not have updated if I really knew what I was getting.
Typical crapware. No way to remove (or just move elsewhere) the predefined searches, no way to filter out the advertisement out of search results and no way to remove the thing from app drawer (unless ones uses something like Launcher Pro's "Hidden Apps" feature).
Nice! Google has got even better now..new more very helpful features. Good job guys!
-Allisa Alloju
http://www.facebook.com/AllisaAlloju
I also had to reboot after upgrading Maps to see Places. phone: HTC Incredible
Also can not call from within the Maps app. Is this a bug or intentional??? Luckily the labs "bubble button" saves the day. MT3gSlide
Looks nice, but this is unusable – I can no longer call from within the Maps app. Verizon Droid Incredible.
Indifferent to the white background. Functionally, this makes me feel smarter. I will be deleting the places directory app. Combine this with the nice touches in the lab and you have the best means to find any place you are looking for. Runs great on froyo. Keep up the good work G Maps.
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