More information with fewer clicks on Google Maps

Last week we rolled out a useful new improvement to Google Maps, showing hover tooltips the map to give more information on search results and other things without clicking:


Official post on Google LatLong blog

Pre-regeneration Elephant

This weekend I left Elephant & Castle in preparation for relocation to Sydney. As the local regeneration picks up, it is likely that the area will be almost unrecognizable upon my return in a few years. I've taken some photos of the area around the soon-to-be-demolished Heygate Estate and Southern roundabout subways for posterity:


View the complete set...

Victorian Pullens

In the aftermath of a new film being shot around my street, I took a few photos of the street as a film set, complete with Victorian advertisements and sooty building facades:


View the complete set...

New Google Maps tiles for mobile

Following the roll-out a few weeks ago of new map styles on Google Maps for desktop, we have now updated the mobile maps tiles to be consistent with the desktop style for the first time. The new design offers a much greater information density without sacrificing any legibility, as the example below shows:



To see the new styles, simply access Google Maps on your mobile device of choice.

New York subways on Google Maps

We've just added New York City to the Transit layer on Google Maps for desktop and mobile, one of the most requested cities since we first launched:



Official post on Google Lat Long blog
Official post on Google Mobile blog

Evolving the look of Google Maps

After a lot of hard work and lots of iterations, we have just launched brand new map and hybrid tiles on Google Maps!

I wrote a blog post about it on the Google Lat Long blog:
"Today's changes are intended to keep the same information-rich map while making it easier to pick out the information that is most useful. The changes affect both the Map and Hybrid styles, and include numerous refinements to colour, density, typography, and road styling worldwide."

Marissa Mayer also posted it on the Google Blog:
"We have updated the way that maps render on Google Maps, and it is our biggest change in almost 5 years. The changes are subtle but significant. The blog post with the announcement has some very interesting before and after examples. The impetus of this change is to improve usability and readability and literally help people find where they are going faster — our goal both on the web with search, and in the physical world with maps."

Irene Au tweeted it:
"Evolving the look of Google Maps (congrats Jonah!)"

A glowing review from TechCrunch:
"...looking at the side-by-side images, it’s clear to see that the new look is much nicer. Gone is much of the clutter caused by darkened street outlines... subtle, but much better."

Google Watch: "Google Maps' Biggest Little Refresh for Map, Hybrid Styles"
"Jones posts more Maps changes on the Maps blog here, but you can see where Google is going with this: disambiguation between topographical components leads to better usability, which will keep Maps users from going elsewhere and could even bring more Maps users to the fold via word of mouth. That will be crucial at a time when Yahoo, Microsoft, and maybe even Apple are vying for users with their own map programs."

Bubble Foundry: "This is why Google Maps is so good"
Check out the blog post Google LatLong: Evolving the look of Google Maps and I’m sure you’ll agree that Google Maps is by far the most usable and aesthetically pleasing online mapping service out there.

Comment on TechCrunch:
"Wow! The new look is much easier on the eyes. It seems so cluttered when you look at the old images of Google maps. Google did a good job on this one. Two thumbs up"

New directions for Google Mobile Maps

Last week we launched an entirely rebuilt Directions component in Google Mobile Maps, adding Transit & Walking directions to the app - one of the top feature requests since the launch earlier this year:



If you own a Palm Pre, you'll automatically pick up the change in the Google Maps app. On the iPhone, you can bookmark a direct invocation path to Transit (http://maps.google.com/maps/m?mode=transit), which our Japanese users will see as a mobile One Google link.

Official post on Google Japan blog
(... and the English translation for those who can't read Japanese)

Place Pages for Google Maps

We've just launched a new feature called the Place Page, which aims to give a dedicated webpage to every place on the planet. In doing so, we are finally retiring the old super-sized bubble that used to dominate the map when trying to get more information about a place, and giving a lot more content with a lot more room to breathe:


Official post on Google blog
Official post on Google LatLong blog

Chinese Fitness part II

In the aftermath of Beijing 2008, Jones and Boonstoppel again visit the Olympic city to find that they are not the only ones getting in shape.


Watch this fullscreen on YouTube

Chinese Fitness practice

Out-takes and practice for the Chinese Fitness saga:


Watch this fullscreen on YouTube