The search engine giant has pepped up its local search options with several new features.

For starters, there is now a topographical view in Google Maps, along side the “map” and “satellite” views. The topographical view (called “Terrain” in English and “Gelände” in German) shows features such as mountains and valleys and other geographical features. As Chris Pennock and Keith Ito explain in the Google LatLong Blog, this newly introduced view is really useful for example, when one plans hikes or cycling tours. This is however only partially accurate – at least for the current Germany views, the resolution provided at present is not sufficiently high to be useful.

The new menu option has replaced the “Hybrid” button, though the Hybrid function is still available, by clicking the ‘”Satellite” button and checking the ‘show labels’ option.

“Wiki-Maps”
Another innovation introduced is to be found under the “My Maps” tab. For quite a while now, registered users have been able to compile their own maps here. New to this is the “Collaborate” option (visible under the list of your customized maps), which allows the user to invite people to collaborate on the maps in question. The ‘people’ can be either invited, or open to anyone.

Mobile Location without GPS
Another innovation – this time in the mobile version of Google Maps – introduces the function “My Location” (which is still at present in Beta-testing). This facilitates mobile phone users without built in GPS receivers to determine their position, thanks to the Google folks. In order to do this, the position of the mobile phone is determined by triangulation with available mobile-phone masts, providing a relatively accurate current position. “My Location” is not as accurate as GPS, but it has its advantages, as Mike Chu tells in the Google Mobile Blog. One can use it for instance within buildings [where GPS cannot see any satellites] and also requires less battery use. To see more about the specifics of this feature, check out this nicely made Video Clip.