A Closer Look at Google Maps on the Google Phone

Google is giving those interested in the new Google Phone (the G1 from T-Mobile) a closer look at the David Conway talks about the Google Maps capabilities on the device:

You can pan around and zoom in and out easily using just your thumb on the touchscreen -- a big plus for all those times when that other hand is unavailable. And if I want to see a restaurant or building up close, I can switch to Street View and view a panorama from street level. I can even turn on Compass mode to let me look around the panorama by moving my phone up, down, and to the side. It's like popping up a virtual periscope anywhere you want to check out what's there with your own eyes. Check out the video below for a quick demo. Note that Street View on Android is only available in the US at this time.

When I'm in a new city or just a new part of town, I like to turn on My Location. It can use GPS or just the nearest cell tower to tell me where I am and re-center my position in the middle of my screen when I approach the edge. When I'm walking or in a taxi in a dense city, like New York, I zoom in to street level and turn on GPS for the highest accuracy.

With the G1, you can also save search results to contacts, so when you find a business using Google Maps, you can conveniently store the map. This should be a convenient feature for people who travel a lot, particularly to the same cities repeatedly. If you find a great Chinese restaurant in LA once, you can easily find it again via your contacts.

Developers are free to use Android's MapView and location APIs to build "location-aware" mobile applications, so I would expect to see a lot of cool things happening out of that. Conway cites Locale, which were winners in the GeoEye imagery is implemented throughout (