Google Maps, Local Expand To UK

Koushiro writes "From Google's official blog comes word that Google Maps UK and Google Local UK have been launched, confirming speculations that the search engine giant would continue to expand its regional services to an international audience. The seemingly logical next step, of course, would be to expand coverage to Western Europe, but given the input Google's UK office had into this project, can we expect Google Maps India next?"

Satellite

[Anonymous Coward]

But no Satellite mapping as yet... Still playing catchup.

Re:UKIP Victory!

[gowen]

Kilroy Silk isn't in UKIP anymore. He's formed his own party "Veritas [wikipedia.org]".

The name comes from the latin : "Verity" meaning "True" and "Ass", meaning "Robert Kilroy Silk".

Re:Great...

[Anonymous Coward]

It exists already, just isn't integrated with .uk TLD. Go to regular Google Maps, scroll right to UK, and choose Satelite. HTH,

Not only the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

But Ireland as well.

SMS

[Big Mark]

We've also got Google SMS now, which is actually useful. [google.co.uk]

Re:UKIP Victory!

[cozzano]

You misspelt 'Tit' as 'Mr'

Nice but not up to date

[trash eighty]

very nice though several newish roads (2-3 years old by now) near me arn't on the maps.

Re:OK, I'm impressed.

[gowen]

Because you had to know the address of the chipshop to get that URL.

Google found on the basis of "Find a chippy near my house."

Re:But the prime minister's house

[pklong]

It's not like you can go visit anyway. They errected huge steel gates at the end of Downing street years ago. All you can do if peer through the railings.

Re:OK, I'm impressed.

[timthorn]

The colour is for the road status - in the UK we have motorways (eg M1, M25), other trunk roads (A class and B class, eg A41 or B4096), and other roads. Motorways are usually blue, A roads usually red or green, and B roads usually orange. Motorways are almost all 70mph, A roads vary from 40 to 70, and B roads from 30 to 60.

The road numbering started out as loosely based on which direction from London the road heads. The M1 goes north from London, as does the A1. The A11 is a bit further around, the A110 further still. I'm sure there's a website somewhere that explains the numbering better.

Other option..(I think its better)

[xtracto]

Although I am a google fan, I have been using for quite some time the Map24 [map24.com] page after someone in /. pointed at it. I find it quite useful and the interface is pretty cool (Real time map find using Java or No Java option.

I find it quite useful to look for places in Europe when going to a conference or vacations, that and the HostelWorld [www.hostelworld] are pretty cool pages, now, there is something I have seen no Map page do, that is, to add Bus line information to the maps, I know in some countrys it would be rather difficult but, in UK, there is Arriva, MerseyTravel and other companies whose lines and journeys are very well defined, now, if someone adds that functionality it will be THE map web page I will use =o).

Re:If you scroll over....

[meringuoid]

How long before asking for directions between locations in different countries, such as your house in the UK and a hotel in the US, and google gives you details of flights between the nearest appropriate airports?

I played with this a bit. Plan a route from, say, Bristol to Belfast, and Google will include the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. So, my guess: not very long at all.

Re:Not only the UK

[derek_m]

Well, not really Maps are there for all of Ireland, but the search functionality appears to only cover Northern Ireland - so far at least.

Re:Great...

[VdG]

Google Maps UK does look nice and I expect I'll make some use of it. However, one of the things I like about Multimap is that you can actually see the Ordnance Survey map, which gives you loads of lovely detail, including topographic information. This is very nice if you're just looking for a scenic ride.

Re:Unusual Projections

[jabuzz]

No, but most european countries have suitable projections optimized for the country. So Great Britain should use OSGB36 and Ireland should use the Irish National Grid, and so on and so forth. Instead they look to have imposed some WGS84 based projection on us.

India?

[illuvator]

After getting lost in Haryana once, I figured out that most roads here do not have names, and even if they do, no one is quite sure where they go...

You could probably map the "official" areas of big cities like Delhi or Mumbai, but forget about the slums or village India.

Re:Looks like UK satellite views soon too...

[De Lemming]

On that zoom level, they have satellite views for the whole world. But if you try to zoom in a bit (zoom level 6 of 15), you get the message "We're sorry, but we don't have imagery at this zoom level for this region. Try zooming out for a broader look."

Re:No junction numbers.

[BenjyD]

Still using Americanisms as well: "Take the ramp to Stansted/London" for example. Ramp? What is this, a BMX stunt course?

No Ordnance Survey maps!

[jabuzz]

Frankly I will be sticking with streetmap.co.uk, multimap.com and the OS's own website that have the highly detailed, instantly recognizable to anyone from the U.K. Ordnance Survey 1:50000 and 1:25000 topographic maps of Great Britain on them. They also have the easily recognisable Bartholomew and OS road atlas maps. In comparison the TeleAtlas road maps suck.

Re:UKIP Victory!

[philbowman]

Yes, but the whole of the Island of Ireland is included in the maps, both Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and Eire (a separate country). I apologise to the Irish for not being completely correct in my posting WHEN MAKING A JOKE! Same about the UKIP / Kilroy stuff I know he left the party but I really couldn't be bothered to remember the name of the new lot. BTW, I am British so I am insulted by being called American. Call me Canadian and I wouldn't care :-) Those Canucks are cool, eh! Go Habs! The Isles of Scilly are there too (which I think are ours), but not the Channel Islands (which are sort of ours but kind of independant too). None of it's painted red, anyway... So, sorry everyone. I will check my facts better before posting.

Map24 and Google

[TheIdaho]

It seems to me that its no coincidence that Map24 is also a good service - if you check their home page www.uk.map24.com then they are announcing a collaboration with Google. Methinks this is where Google got their map data from, and perhaps some of the software.

Missing places

[AndrewRUK]

It's nice, but it's missing quite a lot of places - try searching for the Millennium Stadium (in Cardiff), the National Exhibition Centre (Birmingham), Bristol Temple Meads station, Birmingham New Street station, Edinburgh Waverly station or Cardiff Central station (I tried stations because it gave Paddington as an example and they have unique names, so it should be easy for it to find them if it knows about them.)

Its like Bono

[Anonymous Coward]

When he releases a #1 hit hes English, when hes annoying people he's Irish. ;)

Incidently Irish laws on maps is pretty strict. For example if I was to draw a map on a napkin of somewhere in Ireland the Irish government automatically own it.

You generally have to get permission before displaying Irish maps, even if you created it yourself. Surprised there is no (c) showing when you look at the Irish parts.

Re:UKIP Victory!

[DrXym]

The UKIP needn't worry though. The party is replete with arseholes, bigots, eccentrics, xenophobes and nutcases.

Re:Not only the UK

[Finuvir]

Ireland is the name of the island, which includes Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (a seperate nation). The Republic of Ireland is officially called Ireland (in English) or Eire (in Irish). The name "Republic of Ireland" is its official description for use in contexts where the distinction between the nation and the island (both named Ireland) is necessary to avoid ambiguity.

So yes, part of Ireland (the island) is in the UK. None of Ireland (the country) is in the UK.

Re:Not only the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

If you ever have to plan a journey around Dublin try here [dto-journeyplanner.ie].

Can't cope with roundabouts

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Maps UK directions tell you to turn left onto the first turning for 0.0 miles and then to turn left onto the exit you want, at every roundabout. Just going from my home to my work it messed up on five roundabouts. It even happens when just crossing a roundabout. Do they have roundabouts in the States?

try this map place

[cheekyboy]

http://www.hot-maps.de/index.html

and if you want good sat photos, download nasa's WorldWind earth viewer.

Not quite there

[astralbat]

I love the smooth transitioning. But as far as detail goes, there isn't even any junction numbers on the roads. Not very useful when planning a journey. I think I will stick with http://www.multimap.com/ [multimap.com] in the meantime!

Re:OK, I'm impressed.

[g_attrill]

The UK road numbering system is explained nicely on this page [colorado.edu].

Also good for information is: www.uk-roads.co.uk [uk-roads.co.uk]

Re:OK, I'm impressed.

[m50d]

They're numbered in a spiral out from London. The A1 goes north to edinburgh along the east coast, A2 into kent, A3 south to portsmouth, A4 to wales and A5 to Birmingham, with the A6 going north to Edinburgh (historically) by the west coast. Then the A7 goes south from Edinburgh to meet the A6, the A8 goes west to Glasgow, and the A9 north to Inverness. Then coming back to London we have the A10 up to Cambridge, the A11 out towards Norwich, A12 to Ipswich, A13 out to Chelmsford, A14 confusingly elsewhere, but then A15 going more southerly and so on until we get to A69, all of these starting gradually further from the dome of St Paul's which is taken as the centre of London. After this the A70-A99 are numbered in a spiral from Edinburgh, A100-699 from London and so on. The green ones are primary routes, in rare cases B roads can also be green roads, and link up a set of "primary destinations". Generally these are straighter and faster roads than the red ones, with more service stations, etc. B roads (which are normally yellow rather than orange) are numbered similarly, but motorways are different, instead taking the number of the nearby A road. Thus there are plenty of gaps in the motorway numbering, for example there is an M20 but no M19, and the M5 starts nowhere near London, it's just long and vaguely near the A5. Also, when an A road is upgraded to a motorway it keeps its name, just with a (M) afterwards, so we have the A1(M) for large sections of the A1 route.

Re:Google Maps India a distant dream

[Anonymous Coward]

I pretty much use the Eicher map to get anywhere in Bangalore. The level of detail is about as good as Google maps at full zoom, maybe a little better.

Online driving directions may not work, but an online map of that detail of major indian cities would be incredibly popular

Re:OK, I'm impressed.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Ax(M) roads certainly are motorways, with motorway regulations applying. You will typically notice a sign saying, "Motorway ahead, non-motorway traffic leave at next junction" on roads such as the A1 just before it turns into the A1(M).

There are motorway-class A roads to which motorway regulations do not apply, but they are just called the Ax, instead of the Ax(M). An obvious example is the A282, the road which connects Essex and Kent and which is often mistaken for the M25. It looks like a motorway, has a hard shoulder and everything, but the road signs are green instead of blue, and if you are suitably insane you can try cycling on it. You can't cycle on the A1(M).

You'll notice that stretches of A-road which are upgraded to motorways always have a parallel route, often constructed out of one of the carriageways of the original A-road, precisely for traffic which is not allowed on motorways. The A1000 [google.co.uk] in Hertfordshire (shown here in yellow) is a good example.

Re:Looks like UK satellite views soon too...

[sas-dot]

In fact entire global image is there in the google satellite images. These images are called NASA Blue marble Images [nasa.gov]. A zoom of up to 6 notches we can see images. India is not far in Googles sight...