Last week Gawker Media launched Lifehacker, a site I have gotten addicted to quite quickly. It’s a great resource for any geek or geek-wannabe. One of today’s finds is the most recent service launched by Google: Google Maps. They offer very nice clean maps that allow searches for more than just addresses. For example, see chocolate in evanston. Click on the red pointers and get the exact addresses. With another quick click you can add an address for directions. By clicking on “Link to this page” you get a static link you can share with others. (Note that the arrows for navigating are in the upper left hand corner not on the sides of the map as with some other services.)
The results to searches are far from exhaustive though. I’m afraid the above search misses my favorite chocolate store in town. In fact, curiously, it misses relevant stores that a regular Google search will bring up and Google Local doesn’t seem to be using Google Maps yet either. Since they’re still in beta, hopefully we’ll see some improvements. Regardless, it looks like a very nice new service worth checking out.
{ 6 comments }
Jeremy Osner 02.08.05 at 5:41 pm
This is huge, thanks for the tip!
Jeremy Osner 02.08.05 at 5:44 pm
The shadows cast by the popup address bubbles are such a nice detail.
jam 02.08.05 at 10:46 pm
Google Maps don’t seem to work on Firefox on a Mac. Perhaps later.
David Sucher 02.09.05 at 3:31 am
Works fine for me on Firefox on a Mac.
jam 02.09.05 at 6:21 pm
I had “allow scripts to change images” unchecked under advanced Javascript preferences, which is why the map didn’t come up.
Hana 02.11.05 at 1:58 am
Doesn’t bloody work on Safari yet, though works on every other browser there is. Serves me right for being to lazy to install Firefox yet.
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