Google Maps

What's as cool, or even cooler than Google Earth? That is not a trick question - don't break your head trying to figure it out if you don't know. If any of you are fans of Google Earth (yes, the old version was a little clunky, but check out the new version, its pretty cool), you will love Google Maps. So I'm a little late in professing my wonderment with this Google tool. The reason is simply because it only got my attention now with their new feature "Street view". Though it currently works only for "major cities" (read: major cities in US), it is a cool feature to look forward to.

What is cool about Google map is that it merges both Google Earth with Google map views (you can always alternate between the 2 views via tabs on top) while allowing you to search nearby locations for restaurants, buildings, etc.

So I did a test. I remember giving up on the older version of Google Earth when I did a search on "Darling Harbour" after my introduction trip to our Sydney office and came up with nothing. I was appalled. Someone later told me that the satellite images shown on Google Earth is actually a couple of years old. So you see, Google didn't actually go out and BUY a satellite just to give us Google Earth. They simply retrieved old (i.e. non security threatening) images from government satellites that are already out there.

So when I was alerted that Google Map now had street views, and with the newer (improved) version of Google Earth, I wondered if the images and information were more up to date.

I went to Google map and typed in "Darling Harbor". This is what I got:


I can save it as a bookmark under "My Map" and do a search for any businesses nearby. Since it was Darling Harbor, I did a search for "Seafood" with some surprising results. Nick's Seafood place came up (and I remember eating there too!) along with many other seafood places, with addresses and even phone numbers!





I then did a zoom in on the map for road directions then switched over to satellite view for a visual recognition. Pretty cool:





Only thing is - I don't remember Nick's being where it is on the location that is showed. But then, my memory is not very good geographically - I only passed that subject by the skin of my teeth. It was surprising that all the seafood restos that were on darling harbour itself did not get "found". Only goes to point to 1 truth: It pays to be listed on Google...