Maps Labs, a Google innovation that facilitates the use of Google Maps features, is a new feature. Its purpose is to make it interactive. It may become a regular feature on Google Maps depending on how it is received and the success of Maps Labs. It currently includes nine features: Aerial Imagery and Back to Beta; LatLng Marker and LatLng Tooltip; Rotatable Maps; Smart Zoom; What’s Around Here, Where in the World Game google maps mapquest .
It is clear that Google Maps is intended to be more interactive. Maps Labs is open to all users to suggest features to improve Google Maps’ interactiveness. Although Maps Labs has been in place for a few days, there is a warning in the Google-Latlong blog: If the features fail to live up to their promises, one can still escape to the standard Google Map version. This raises questions about the future plans of this project.
“Aerial Imagery” as its name suggests, offers an aerial view from a different perspective. To zoom in on this option, viewers can simply drag the cursor over the area to be highlighted. Context Menu also includes a feature called ‘LatLng Marker’. LatLang, a shorthand for latitude/longitude, allows users to drop a small marker that indicates the latitude/longitude of the point the cursor was at when the context menu was invoked. The ‘LatLang tooltip’ feature displays a tooltip right next to the mouse cursor that shows the latitude/longitude. It’s not uncommon to move the map around when you view it in person. The ‘Rotatable Maps” feature allows users to flip the map upside down. It allows you to search for the most interesting areas around the area that you are looking. This secondary search allows us to explore additional areas and businesses that may be of interest.
Some features are more notable than others. For example, Smart Zoom is a clever way to tell the user in advance that an image cannot be zoomed further. It would be fascinating to see the new features in Maps Labs and to find out what additional interface they would add to Google Maps.