Google Updates Google Maps For iOS

Google has released its first update to Google Maps for iOS, bringing some features from Android and the web.

Version 1.1, available on the App Store on Tuesday, now allows you to search for addresses based on their Google Contacts if they choose to log into their Google accounts. Additionally, the app now also allows you to search for general categories like "restaurants," "bars," "gas stations," and so on. 

Users can now sync up previously-searched locations based on contact information, so if you have an address saved under Mom, searching by name will point you to the place on the map.

Google asks customers to note that some of these features may not be available in all countries.

--Vedang Parmar

Google Launches Indoor Maps In Singapore

So, Google has launched indoor maps for singapore. This map will be able to see inside buildings, offices, shopping malls, large buildings etc. Such information includes floor plans and basic walking directions for any building which has submitted its indoor maps to Google. It uses existing Wi-Fi access points to pinpoint a user's location and follows his movement as he travels across different floors.

22 Malls have been set up for its launch. But the changi airport is not lucky yet. Well, the indoor maps are not new for the public of singapore, in 2010, SingTel launched an app which gives you the direction and detailed floor plan.

Google maps do not need to launch a new application for indoors, they can just put something that when we zoom, we can see the floor plans.To keep the application updated, businesses can upload their floor plans to Google.

--Vedang Parmar

Google To Make India Maps Better

Google India has announced Mapathon 2013, the country's first mapping competition. It is a crowd sourcing initiative aimed to improve Google Maps in India. Registrations for the competition, which commences on February 12 and concludes on March 25, 2013, have begun. The top 1000 mappers stand a chance to win Android tablets, smartphones, gift vouchers and Google merchandise, the company said. 

Those who sign up for the competition can update the maps via Google Map Maker. It is a tool to add details to Google Maps via satellite imagery or users' own local knowledge. Once an entry has been submitted to Google, it will be verified and then added to Google Maps. Apart from adding new locations, participants can also update sites that are already listed on Google Maps. 

Highlighting the USP of Google Map Maker, Jayanth Mysore, product manager, Google India says, "Google aims to provide better maps for India by building better maps for the users, by the users. Today, citizens across India can participate in this great project through Mapathon 2013."

Google Pledges To Restore In-Browser Maps Access To Deprived Windows Phone Users

Rejoice, Windows Phone users: your daylong Google Maps crisis will soon be over.

After causing quite a kerfuffle the other day by effectively blocking some Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps in-browser, Google has released a statement (obtained by The Next Web) clarifying its rationale and promising that it would soon fix the issue.

“IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality,” the statement reads. “As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users.”

Here’s a quick primer on the situation in case you’re not familiar with it: late yesterday, Windows Phone users discovered that they could no longer access Google Maps from within the preloaded Internet Explorer browser – they’d be redirected to the Google homepage instead. When the expletive hit the fan shortly afterward, Google issued an official statement that, no, it never officially supported in-browser Google Maps on the Windows Phone platform, blaming the “fact” that IE doesn’t lean on the WebKit layout engine. It wasn’t long at all before people figured out that wasn’t exactly the whole story. Google was only redirecting users whose browser user-agent strings betrayed them as Windows Phone owners.

So long story short, the experience for Windows Phone users really sucked, and they didn’t want people using it. Fair enough, I suppose. I get not wanting people to draw inaccurate conclusions about Google Maps because it doesn’t yet play nice with a particular platform. But to say that Google handled this whole situation poorly is a bit of an understatement. Walling off a service like Maps to an entire class of device owners was bad form, even if it wasn’t the vindictive, anti-competitive move some people first thought it was.

Really Google, could you not have just told Windows Phone users that when they tried to access Google Maps? Was a blind redirect really the best you guys could come up with? Granted, Microsoft’s mobile OS hasn’t exactly picked up the sort of traction that makes every developer swoon yet, but surely there must have been another way.

It really seems like Google just took the path of least resistance here. After all, there’s a decent enough Maps app baked into every Windows Phone, and Google clearly didn’t expect the likely small subset of users who leaned on Google Maps to get too ticked when access to a sub-standard experience was revoked. I can’t help but think that it was foolish of Google to underestimate the ire of spurned geeks, but with any luck, Google will think long and hard before it does something as short-sighted as this again.

Google Maps Never Supported Internet Explorer On Windows Phone 8

Microsoft’s complaint that Google is hoarding its YouTube metadata has fueled a new conspiracy theory: The search giant has pulled levers to prevent Windows Phones from accessing Google Maps. In reality, this phenomenon likely has little if anything to do with chicanery on Google’s part and everything to do with Microsoft’s reluctance to support the WebKit browser framework.

While Google Maps was never officially built for or supported by the Windows Phone platform, prior to this complaint, the service was accessible to a certain degree. Users of Windows Phone 7 and 8 both seem to be facing this issue.

Google released an explanation for the issue, saying that Google Maps rely on WebKit on mobile devices and Internet Explorer for Windows Phone does not utilise the rendering engine.

Microsoft, over the past few months, has publicly sparred with Google over its shutting down of Exchange Activesync support at the end of January. Microsoft expressed “disappointment” in the action and implored any affected users to transition to Outlook.com, its new (and excellent) mail offering. By turning off Activesync access (which applies to all platforms, not just Microsoft’s), Windows Phone users will not be able to sync Google contacts or calendars. Because Microsoft has yet to implement CalDAV and CardDAV support in its mobile OS, users will be out of luck by the end of the month.

Apple, on the other hand, will be unaffected by the change as it implemented the new calendar and contact sync standards in its latest version and has push support for mail via a native app. Android users, of course, will suffer no such issues with sync as their phones tie directly into Google’s activation servers.

While it’s currently assumed that the redirect is a bug and not the status quo going forward, we’ve yet to hear from Google on the issue.