Thursday, December 1, 2011

Google Maps adds indoor navigation so you?ll never get lost at the mall or airport again (Yahoo! News)

If you're the type who frequently gets lost in large indoor spaces, the newest?Google Maps update for?Android could help lessen the occurrence. That's because its newest iteration, version 6.0, comes with indoor navigation for select retail outlets, shopping malls, and airports in the United States and Japan. While you won't be provided with turn-by-turn directions or?images of every establishment similar to outdoor navigation, you'll still get detailed floor plans that show where you are with a blue dot marker.

Using indoor navigation is easy enough ? just zoom in on a building where the option is available and the view will automatically change. The blue dot indicating your location keeps track of your movement between floors, so if you take an escalator to the second story from the first, the dot's position also gets updated. As the feature just rolled out, its availability is extremely limited. Expect to whip out your Android device for some indoor navigating goodness only in a handful of places including 18 airports, Mall of America, and select Macy's, Ikea, Bloomingdale, and The Home Depot outlets.

Is indoor navigation something you think you'll use? To get the feature, simply?update your Google Maps app. Google aims to expand the number of participating locations quickly by opening a?self-serve portal where business owners can upload floor plans. We hope more places get added soon so it can aid us during this upcoming?holiday season's inevitable trips to the mall.

[via?Engadget]

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111129/tc_yblog_technews/google-maps-adds-indoor-navigation-so-youll-never-get-lost-at-the-mall-or-airport-again

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