Google Maps for Mobile Users

You can take the well known Google Maps functionality from your traditional desktop computer environment to your mobile phone. The mobile phone version is similar to the desktop version still providing many neat features such as draggable maps, determining directions, local listings as well as viewing key features, vector maps, and satellite imagery all together in one interface. The main difference is that Google Maps for mobile users has been designed for users on the go, so it provides other features (like click-to-call) that are specific to mobile phones.

The Google Maps for mobile users application is free to use and can easily be downloaded to your phone and is supported by several hand held devices (check out this list to see if your unit is supported). To download the Google Map application simply visit http://www.google.com/gmm/ on your mobile phone web browser.

Google Maps is free to use from Google, but your mobile service provider may charge data service or internet service rates for downloading and using the application with a limited or no data plan so it is recommended that you contact your carrier for more details.

Google Street View

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps that provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched in 2007, it only had five American cities included but it has since expanded to include thousands of locations in the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Google Street View displays photos taken from cameras mounted on a fleet of cars and placed in 'image orbs' within Google's maps, displayed against the backdrop of images previously taken from satellite that make up Google's maps. These "image orbs" can be navigated using either the arrow keys on the keyboard or by using a mouse to click on arrows displayed on the screen. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles. Lines that are displayed along the street that is shown indicate the direction followed by that street view camera car.

More Info on Google Street View