Today when visiting my favourite little travel planning tool – Google Maps i noticed something a little different. No it wasnt Google Buzz or Google Wave but Google Labs! It was a little potion bottle icon that when clicked displayed the following message:

Google Maps Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change, break or disappear at any time.

Google Labs - Maps

I thought cool, thanks Google for letting me try out these “experimental” tools!

Let’s go through them:

Drag n Zoom
Pretty simple really, select the drag n zoom tool then drag a rectangle on the map and it will zoom in. What do they say “often the simple ideas are the best” or something? Well this is definitely in the ultra handy category. Being able to browse around a map and then without double clicking or using key shortcuts or the zoom tools i can drag and it will zoom if rather accurately to a more detailed level. How it works out how far to zoom i don’t know but it’s quick and easy.

Aerial Imagery
Again pretty simple more detailed aerial images. Nice but haven’t found any topless girls sunbathing yet.

Where in the world game
Not too shabby. A simple fun game that presents the user with icon located on a map and the user has to guess what country in the world it is. Unfortunately you can select the map view which with a couple of zoom outs gives you the country name if you wanted to cheat.

Rotatable Maps
Handy for more detailed views to see things from another angle.

What’s around here
Shows user content of what is nearby where you are looking. Unfortunately your map gets littered with thousands of little markers so my advice would be to turn it on as needed.

Lat Lng Tool Tip and Lat Lng Marker
Yeah handy to quickly get the latitude and longitude of a place if you need it for other applications but nothing to write home about.

Smart-Zoom
Removes that “We don’t have imagery at this zoom level” message when you zoom too far in. Yawn.

Rating
A good effort by Google and the community of developers. I like little surprises and enhancements as a geek so 3 Plums.

***~~ (3/5)

Related posts:

1. Travelling with Google Maps

Google maps has to be the best travel planning tool on the web! There i’ve said it. It provides an excellent user interface with a vast array of information to make planning your next trip a breeze.

I’ll take you through planning a trip on Google Maps before you leave:

1. Login to your google account or create one if you dont have one already.
2. Click on Maps.
3. Click on My Maps
4. Click on Create New Map
5. Type in a Title, Description and decided whether you want this map to be public or private then click on Save.


Travel - Google Maps Step 1

Now figure out what you’re looking for? Things to do? Places to stay? Where your going? Hopefully you know this information already. You can either click on the Maker Icon and place it on the map or type the query in the search bar. In this example we’ll be going to Perth Western Australia.

6. Type in Perth Western Australia in the search bar and click Search Maps. You should then be presented with Perth WA in your map and other information in the “speech bubble” and on the left hand side.  Click “Save to my maps” and select the map title you created above.
7. Click the “more info” link to get more photo’s, videos and popular places.


Travelling with Google Maps - Step 2



Travelling with Google Maps - Step 3

 Next we want to find somewhere to stay.

8. Click on the Search Nearby link and type in “Hostel”
9. You should be presented with a list of results on the left and a map of them on the right.
10. Click on the result or the marker will give you a summary of information however we want to only see high rated hostels. So up the top select the Narrow By: “User Rating” link.
11. Select 4 stars and up. Google will then give you only 4 star rated hostels near Perth WA.
    

    Travelling with Google Maps - Step 4

12. Click on a search result and then click the “more info” button again. This takes us to a page with all sorts of information such as:
13. Small Map.
14. Address and contact information.
15. StreetView where possible.
16. Photos and Videos.
17. Reviews including a paragraph of summarised reviews. Try hovering your mouse on one of these and a buddle should appear with more text.
18. Select add to my maps.
    

    Travelling with Google Maps - Step 5

19. Repeat steps 6-13 as needed.

 There you go, that’s the basics, you now have your own map with accommodation and places your visiting with detailed reviews, ratings, photos and videos. The only thing missing, Weather forecast, prices and flight information. With a bit more time you can add route information, your own information, different marker icons etc etc.

 Go ahead plan your next holiday.

Related posts:

1. Google Labs – Google Maps