Google Maps Navigation (Beta) Unveiled

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It looks like navigation service providers had a reason to fear Google playing in their market. What used to be only a supposition yesterday, turned out to be correct today when Mountain View unveiled Google Maps Navigation (Beta), an upgraded version of their current Maps software that brings turn-by-turn navigation to any Android 2.0 device — yes, including the newly introduced Motorola Droid!

“It was clear from user demand the next natural step was to offer turn-by-turn directions,” said Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president of engineering for mobile and developer. “That was what drove this product.”

Google Maps Navigation is a free updated maps application for the company’s upcoming Android 2.0 operating system. Other than offering standard turn-by-turn directions for users to plot their route, the app can be customized to offer a “female robotic voice” to guide you while on the road. On top of these all there’s also the ability to search by business name (have it suggest the closest matches, too) both semantically and geographically, includes traffic data and integration with satellite and street view.

Basically Google Maps Navigation (Beta) comes with 7 major features:

• type the description of your  destination instead of an address
• search by voice — Google’s voice recognition software will know what you’re talking about
• see live real-time traffic conditions in 3D
• while en-route your search will pull out results right along your path — it’s nice to know for sure where you can fill in or have a bite on the highway
• you can watch your route on a 3D satellite map instead of the standard graphical map
• 3D sat map not enough, how about Google Street View to know how the turn-off looks like or what restaurants are ahead
• car dock mode

The new Google Maps Navigation has no ads and is free, so I can bet our paycheck it’s going to be HUGE!