Posts Tagged ‘Suchmaschinenprimus’
Google Maps presents videos more prominently
Local-interest video clips have been available for some time on Google Maps. The search engine giant has now integrated these directly in the map view of their local search service.
Until recently, the videos with geodata were somewhat hard to find – in the left-hand navigation bar, under the menu item “Discover this area”. Now users can display these easily alongside photos and Wikipedia articles, using the “More” button. The videos open when clicking on the Preview images.
Further items have newly appeared in the Street View feature arena – shortly after the beginning of December 2009, many street images of New Zealand were integrated, and the coverage of 360º views in the USA were doubled, as outlined in a post in the Google Lat Long blog.
Posted in General, Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features | 
Tags: 360°-Ansichten, google maps, lokale Suchmaschine, Neuseeland, Straßenansichten, Straßenaufnahmen, street view, Suchmaschinenprimus, Suchmaschinenriese, USA, Videos, YouTube, YouTube-Videos | 
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Google Maps builds on the knowledge of its users
Google knows that Users know their own areas best of all. The search engine giant is now allowing users of its German-language Maps site, to edit and append the search results.
The ability to rate entries has been available to registered Google-Account holders, as of June 2007. Now users have the possibility to change these – such as when address details are incorrect or incomplete, or the markers are incorrectly positioned on the maps. Indeed an out-of-date result can be completely deleted. All these functions can be found in the respective Info-Window of each search result page, accessible through a click on the “Bearbeiten” [en=edit] link. This however can only be done as long as the owner of the undertaking themselves have not ‘claimed’ control over the entry and have verified the information themselves.
If a location is missing, registered users can complete or add to the results. To access this, the user clicks on the link “Add Location to Map”.
These features have been available on other language editions (eg. the USA edition) of Google since March 2008 (see our post).
Google Maps edges localized ads more into view
For quite a while now, Google Maps has offered localized advertising, visible on search results pages. As of recently, these ads have now been moved into a more prominent position directly under the generated map.
Ads on the Google Maps site are now displayed on the left side of the pages, either or both above and below the results list. To clearly separate the ads from the results, the ads are generated in blue, and labelled with “Advert” [de=Anzeige]. In addition, Google is also now allowing ads to appear directly in the map views – whereas regular search results are marked in red, ads are given the option of various special symbols, which are then also linked visually with the text link at the left.
On each results page, a total of 4 Adwords Ads are displayed, with one above, and three below the search results. The latest innovation is that now the three lower ads can also be displayed under the map view, and therefore in the center of the page. However, only one of the three lower ads is ever visible at one time… one can navigate to the other two ads using an arrow button.
The reasons for these new measures probably came as a result that most users usually only saw the upper search results, and the lower results are certainly viewed less often, if at all. With the addition of the results directly under the map, Google is trying to compensate for the lost views, by raising these ads effectively to display higher up on the page.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, New Search Machine Interest, News, Local Search Engines, lokales SEM |
Tags: Anzeige, Anzeigen, Google, google maps, Kartensuche, lokale Informationen, Maps, Suchdienst, Suchmaschinenmarketing, Suchmaschinenprimus, Suchmaschinenriese, Werbung |
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Sharper images for Google Maps
As of the start of September, our globe has been under a further scrutinous eye – that of the GeoEye-1 Satellite, an undertaking of the USA company GeoEye. Google in the future will be one of the customers using the current satellite images delivered by this company.
In a press release, GeoEye explains how the new spacecraft, which orbits at 681km (XXX miles), is fitted with the highest resolution camera available in the non-governmental sphere. Black and white photos are delivered in a resolution of 0,41 meter, and color photos at 1,65 meter. That means objects on the surface are recognizable at sizes from 41cm and 165cm respectively.
According to A report on CNet details a contract between Google and GeoEye, giving the search engine giant the exclusive use of the images, in the sphere of online-map services. Google will use these for its online applications Google Maps and Google Earth. However, Google will be unable to offer the best resolution images to its clients, as US regulations limit GeoEye to offer photos to the commercial sector with a resolution of 0,5m or worse.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines |
Tags: GeoEye, Google, google maps, local, Maps, Satellit, Suchdienst, Suchmaschine, Suchmaschinenprimus, Suchmaschinenriese, Suchmaschinenriesen |
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Google Maps mobil hört zu
30 Jul. 2008 | Author: AWo |
Die mobile Ausgabe der lokalen Suchmaschine Google Maps kann nun auch per Spracheingabe gesteuert werden. Allerdings befindet sich dieser Dienst noch im Test und ist bislang nur in den USA für wenige Handy-Modelle verfügbar.
Wie die Google-Mitarbeiter Jonathan Matus und Luca Zanolin im Google Mobile Blog berichten, können Besitzer von Black-Berry-Geräten (Pearl 8110, 8120 und 8130) in den USA nun ihre lokale Suchanfrage nach Unternehmen ins Handy sprechen, statt sie über die Tastatur einzugeben.
Besonders praktisch sei diese Art der Suche dann, wenn man gerade nicht tippen könne, der Name des Unternehmens lang sei oder man nicht wisse, wie der Name buchstabiert werde. Die Suche per Stimme sei einfach. Man halte – nachdem man die Kartenansicht auf den eigenen Standort zentriert habe – die Sprachwahltaste auf der linken Seite des Black-Berry und spreche den Namen oder die Branche des gesuchten Unternehmens. Darauf hin lasse man den Knopf wieder los, worauf die Spracherkennungstechnik die Frage interpretiere und das gewünschte Unternehmen finde.
Dieses neue Google-Maps-Feature nutzt die gleiche Spracherkennungstechnik wie die kostenlose computergesteuerte Telefonauskunft GOOG-411 des Suchmaschinenriesen (wir berichteten), erklären Matus und Zanolin. Allerdings scheint die Genauigkeit noch nicht vollständig zu überzeugen, denn die beiden Googler versprechen auch, dass sich die Technik im Laufe der Zeit, wenn mehr Leute diese Suchfunktion per Spracheingabe nutzen, verbessern werde.
Google takes on maps from Tele Atlas
Google and Tele Atlas have signed a long term collaboration. As detailed in a press release from Tele Atlas, the two undertakings closed a 5 year deal at the end of June 2008.
The deal grants Google access to the cartographic material of the Netherlands-Belgian map maker. The search engine giant will be able to use this for its present and future map-based services and navigation facilities, for its internet and desktop services (Google Maps and Google Earth) as well as for mobile applications such as Google Maps for Mobile (mobile.google.de).
Tele Atlas in turn receives access to user corrections and suggestions gathered from the Google user community. Tele Atlas plans to use this data to optimize the quality of their map production. Details of the financial arrangement were not revealed by Tele Atlas.
Google Maps extends local content offering
Google Maps is transforming itself ever increasingly from a classic Local Search service to that of an all-encompassing localized information service.
The function “My Maps”, which allows users to generate content and make that accessible to other users, was seemingly one of the first steps in this direction. Recently, the sector-leading search engine added localized photos and videos to the “My Maps” arsenal, accessible under the “Explore this area” (after entering a location in the search field) … see our post.
Just weeks after the above innovations, comes the “More” button, to be found at the top right corner within the displayed map (in all views). Using this feature, one can access even more resources such as photos, panoramas (Panoramio) as well as local-interest articles from Wikipedia. If one selects Wikipedia, for example – for every location where any relevant Wikipedia content exists, a small Wikipedia symbol appears on the map. When clicked, the symbol opens an extract from the online-lexicon in a pop-up window, with a link to the full article. The text describes relevant content e.g. Buildings, streets, places or institutions.
Through these new functions, Google wants to ease the discovery of information about the geographical context, for its users. This was detailed by Christoph Oehler, Product Manager at Google, in Google’s Lat Long Blog.
Upcoming features anticipated for Google Maps include the probable integration of relevant Local News. Such a function is apparently available, according to the Google Lat Long Blog, as of May 2008 in the US-version of the virtual earth program Google Earth. This capability is soon expected for the German-edition of Google Earth as well as Google Maps (maps.google.de). This was announced in a separate announcement by press spokesman Stefan Keuchel, in an interview with “Spiegel-Online”.
