Google continues to use and improve Google Maps

location based services

Search: Tighter Integration - Google Blogoscoped tips us off on how Google is integrating its Local and Maps services more prominently into Search. When running various business related search queries an image of a Google Map appears as the first search result. My thought is that Google wants to get you in front of the proper Maps interface rather than trying to use it in such a small form factor within the Search results list. Philipp Lenssen provides the example of "sf mortage broker" as a sample query in his blog post. Additionally,Search still provides text links in its results to Google Mapped businesses preceded by this geo icon:Address searching yields a text link over to Google Maps preceded by this maps icon:Free Wifi Project Map - Google currently has a project on the go whereby the city of Mountain view is being blanketed with free wifi access. They have made use of the Google Maps API to create a coverage map that shows where the access points are located as well as places where there is no coverage. More info can be found on the above link or here.Google Base: Google Maps bulk upload tips - The Google Base Blog has a very detailed post titled: "Preventing common errors in Google Maps bulk uploads". This post focusses on common errors the Google Base team sees when users upload multiple Google Maps business locations. This is a further example of how Maps is used with another Google service. [via]Google Maps: Printing change - The way you go about printing a Google Map has changed recently. You can no longer do a "file -> print" when viewing a map. Instead, you must click the printer icon:..which will in turn spawn a new window and prompt you to continue to printing. Related to this interface change, 'The GornDog Blog' shows you a way that you can print this displayed map image larger than 640 x 480. [Via Digg]Google Maps: New Zoom featureMore ways Google is making use of Maps (and the API):
Google Summer of Green Project
Feb.16/06: How Google uses Google Maps
Google Mars (API is used)
Froogle Search integration
Google Transit
Google Ride Finder