Most of us already know that Google Maps is an incredibly useful, free online tool. But what you may not be aware of, are some of the new Google Maps features that Google (GOOG) recently added to its interface. The new Google Maps interface is much more user-friendly, because it presents a lot of information and options in one awesome, easy-to-use interface display.
1) One new feature makes it easier to move between views in the program. Now you can hop from a satellite view to a map view to an earth view with the click of a button.
When you go to Google Maps, in the top right corner there is a box that says Satellite with an image of a satellite GPS system view of the map you are viewing. Beneath the Satellite GPS system box, is a box that says “Traffic”. When you hover over these two new Google Maps widgets, a larger box with more options appears.
This new feature Google Maps recently added is known as layers. Now you can quickly and easily view various layers — traffic patterns, geotagged photos and videos, and webcam locations. You can also use the menu to see photos and videos that have been tagged to locations on the view, as well as bicycling routes, location-linked Wikipedia entries, real estate for sale and a number of other layers.
2) You can restrict your Google Maps search to include just businesses or user-created maps, for example. Google Maps also lets you create and save maps with driving directions so you can easily pull up places you visit often.
3) You can now drag and drop routes in Google Maps when you are trying to create the best route. This allows you to customize your trips. Google Maps allows you to drag the route they have provided in certain directions say, because you know that the driving directions given will require you to traverse a heavily bogged down construction zone. New directions are provided on the spot, as if you had just searched for them.
4) You can right click to find out “What’s here” or what is nearby the location you are searching. When you click on “What’s here?”, Google Maps gives you the most relevant result representing that location, whether it’s a specific address, a natural entity, or a place name. You can even send you driving directions to your GPS system navigation device.