I don’t know about you, but when I look at an online map and see outlines of buildings, I get a little frustrated. I want to be able to click somewhere, and find out exactly what’s there. And with a new feature in Google Maps, you can do just that.
If you right-click somewhere on the map, it will bring up a menu with a bunch of options. The new last option allows you to select “What’s here?” And if Google knows — which it does for a lot of places — it will pop up information about what is actually at the location you’re pointing at. If it knows the name of say, a store that is there, it will give that to you. Otherwise, it will give you the address of where you are pointing.
And if you’re zoomed out, it works too. The example Google gives is that if you’re looking at a zoomed out view of the Galapagos Islands, using this feature can get you the name of each individual island. Same with Hawaii, as you can see below.
Sure, in some cases you could find out what was at certain points on a map previously by switching to satellite view, or better yet, Street View. But this is much easier.
And this technique, which is called “reverse geocoding,” has been a part of the Maps API for a little while now, according to Google. So you can use it on your maps as well.
Yeah, a good and useful feature — a long awaited one.
Pretty cool…i still need one feature though..
Cool
Let’s get this feature on the iPhone!
nice!
Isn’t this what Places Directory on the Android basically does?
I love it. I agree it should have been here from the very beginning.
Although when I click on my house, it tells me what’s in the building four houses down… a little odd…
Did you even try it before you wrote this post, or did you just take Google’s description and slap your name on it?
It does not work. It give you the address. I click on a Macy’s store, and it gives the address. I click on a whole freakin’ mall, and it just gives the address. A golf course – just the address. Not even the name.
Do some research, putz.
In my case its working.
I’ve tried it around my house, my workplace and some random places.
Everytime I got a good answer. 1/4 wasn’t correct, but at all it worked.
I am from Germany, maybe the hole thing works better in here ’cause every little shop has a web side…
Ya, that feature should have been a no brainer for them.
Here is the one I want: In Google Maps Mobile, let me correct the “My Location” marker. I don’t have GPS in my POS blackberry and the less dense an area, the less accurate the icon is.
Imagine if tens of thousands of people were sending back data to help improve the feature.
One of my favorite local sites for Boston has been doing the “what’s on this block” feature for almost two years now.
Here’s a popular block in Boston, you’ll see all the business on that block, and you can click over one block east or west, OR double click on the map to see all the business on that particular block.
Not sure if I forgot the link or it stripped it out…
http://boston.p...Newbury_Street_(309-399)?&c=i%60vwoA7vqjwE&a=370+Newbury+Street
Uggh, sorry, I believe it’s Friday…here’s a better link:
http://tr.im/p7JD
What is next? Linking the houses shown on the map with the city/county databases to see who owns them or via the tax database to see who is currently living in them…
Yea, I know you can already get the info via the city/county databases, but I also have serious issues with that info being accessible via the web. (or in person at the clerk’s office)
Pretty useless feature for now. I tried it around my house and it just shows addresses – no businesses or landmarks. And I live in the SF bay area.
Very cool and practical too. Hope we see it on iPhone and Blackberry soon.
OK, maybe I spoke too soon. Flash problems not always allowing me to right click and limited info available.
Given TC’s profile, I would think the writers would try the product before posting. The feature is not useful as currently implemented and does not work as you state. This follows on your string of uninteresting posts about the +/- 1 day of iPhone software updates release, bogus untested instructions to upgrade your iPhone on the cheap, useless commentary on Microsoft’s ad campaigns…
Noise:content ratio warning.
Repeat after me 10 times. “TechCrunch is not Twitter. TechCrunch is not Twitter…”
Why is it that on my blackberry version of Google Maps I can generate some driving directions, then hit “Clear” and calculate something new, yet on the browser version there’s no clear button?
Yes, been waiting for this. I’m also surprised that it took a long time to get to this point…
The bird’s eye view of the desired location is really cool feature.
how does the “mylocation” feature work in all of this?
TC, stop being google’s bitch. reverse geocoding (you can drop the quotes, it’s not the first time the term has been used) is no big deal. i’m sick of you drooling every time google changes the color of a logo or something else relatively mundane.
This is a feature that has long been required, just tested ‘What’s here’ in London and admittedly it needs more recommendations but it works. As mentioned above this made available through mobile handsets would be great especially with reviews for restaurants, museums and places of interest!
Nice – I checked my local sandwich shop & it picked it right up. Was able to find my house number, too.
What’s nice about this is that “it will give you the address of where you are pointing” – so now if I see somewhere I want to go to, I can get the address & tap that into my Garmin. No more having to guess the street number!
Great step for sure. Although, what about being able to look for things yelp style? So — what’s here, showing all the businesses within 500m, a mile, etc.
Here’s how to get a listing and markers on the Google Maps showing all indexed locations nearby .. it’s quite handy and what most people probably were expecting!
http://alicious...ts-really-here/
i wonder when we get it in the maps api?
MapQuest for iPhone does this too.
Great ..!! I already use Google Maps to do business .jejej
What about wikimapia ? it’s been around for years and have this feature:
http://wikimapia.org
amap.to shows lots of stuff around a point, and it’s a tiny link that’s easily emailable and tweetable
http://amap.to/uqunm
Wow, that’s another interesting part of G-Map in fact, I’m beginning to love it and use it especially if I need to find a place I don’t know yet.