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When you search Google for [directions] or [get directions], you get an error message: " No results for that place. Try entering it below to get suggestions. " Google shows a special card for directions with cool features like autocomplete, but the error message is out of place because you haven't typed a location. Suggestions aren't very smart. For example, I typed "Brisbane, Australia" as the starting point and then I started to type "Mel" as the destination. Google suggested 3 places from California, strictly based on my location, while ignoring that Melbourne is a much better suggestion. Google shows directions inside the card and you can pick between driving, walking, cycling or using public transportation. To see the directions, just click the text that describes your favorite route. If there is only one route, pick that one. Another option is to click "directions" and go to the Google Maps site.

I'm not sure if this is a new feature, but it must be pretty recent. Google Maps for Android lets you add home screen shortcuts to directions directly from the app. Just search for directions, tap the menu icon and pick "add route to Home screen". This works best when you select the current location, but it's not a requirement. You may also see this message: "Go here often? Add this route. Tap here to add a Home screen shortcut to this route." Another option is to add the directions widget, which lets you pick the shortcut name, whether to start turn-by-turn navigation and more.

Google intended to discontinue Panoramio back in 2014, shortly after Google Maps Views was launched , but a lot of users complained and Panoramio continued to exist . Now Google announces that Panoramio will become read-only on November 4th and it'll be shut down one year later, in November 2017. "Today, with photo upload tools in Google Maps and our Local Guides program, we are providing easy ways for you to share your photos with an active and growing community. As such, we've decided to move forward with closing down Panoramio," informs Google. If you've linked your Panoramio account with a Google account, you'll be able to find your photos in Google Album Archive and they'll not use your storage quota. You can also export your photos in Google Takeout . Google encourages Panoramio users to join the Local Guides program for Google Maps and share photos, add reviews and information about places. "It's all about that warm feeling you g...

The latest version of the Google Maps app for Android adds more integration with Google Calendar . There's a new upcoming tab in "Your places", which shows a list of upcoming events, including your bookings and reservations from Gmail. Click an event to quickly see the location on the map. There's also a new "personal content" section in the settings, which lets you disable the integration with Google Contacts, Google Photos, disable location, location history and search history.

Are you missing the zoom controls from the old Google Maps interface for the desktop? Mouse over the "-" or "+" button at the bottom of the Google Maps page and click "show slider". You'll get the old zoom slider which allows you to quickly control the zoom level of the map. If you want to go back to the default interface, mouse over the "-" or "+" button and click "hide slider". The nice thing is that Google remembers your preference.

I don't know about you, but my Google Maps for Android has just enabled the new offline features . Even if you have the latest version of the app, you still need to wait until these features are enabled because they're gradually rolled out. My first disappointment is that the new features are still limited. The biggest size for an offline area you can download is 120,000 square kilometers and there are many countries that are bigger than that. I downloaded London's map and checked the size of the map: 332 MB. It also expires in 29 days (maps need to be updated at least every 30 days). It looks like Google's maps include too much information, they take up too much space and there's no way to download some simplified maps. Let's try one of the smallest countries in Europe: Liechtenstein, which has an area of only 160 square kilometers. The offline map has 62 MB. New York? 409 MB. Los Angeles? 356 MB. Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok? Not available because o...

Google Maps has a really cool mobile app for Android and iOS, but most of its features aren't available when you're offline. You can cache maps for small regions and that's pretty useful, but what if you want to cache the maps for an entire country or use navigation and driving directions when you're in a different country? The Here app offers this feature for free and now you can use it in Google Maps too. "Now you can download an area of the world to your phone, and the next time you find there's no connectivity — whether it's a country road or an underground parking garage — Google Maps will continue to work seamlessly. Whereas before you could simply view an area of the map offline, now you can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places, like hours of operation, contact information or ratings," mentions Google . "You can download an area by searching for a city, count...

The new Google logo stands out more. The latest version of the Google Maps app for Android replaced the gray Google logo from the bottom left corner with a bigger logo that's now colorful. Here's a screenshot from an old version of Google Maps. You need to look carefully to see the logo at the bottom: This screenshot is from the latest version of the Google Maps app. The new logo doesn't blend in with the map and it's more distracting. A similar logo was also added to the desktop site:

The latest version of the Google Maps app for Android lets you add private names for places . Search for an address or drop a pin on the map, tap the 3-dot menu icon and pick "Edit name". You can add a name that lets you quickly find the place on the map, just like you can find "home" or "work". The private name is saved to your Google account and you're the only one who can see it. Here's an example for a local business (this feature is even more useful for places that don't have a name in Google Maps): To edit a name or delete it, open the side menu and tap "Your places". At the top of the section, you can find the named places, including "home" and "work". Google Maps also has a new interface for location history: it's called "your timeline" and it's available on the web and in the Android app. "Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see t...