The next dimension of Google Maps and Google Earth (First Take)

At an invite-only press event in its San Francisco office, Google today made a few big announcements regarding its ubiquitous mapping and navigation programs, Google Maps and Google Earth. While not everything they showed off is quite ready for the public yet, we do have some initial thoughts on the announced updates.

Offline Google Maps for Mobile
Even though I haven't played with this feature yet, I can already say Offline Maps is going to be hugely useful. Travelers especially should be ecstatic, as they will be able to cache specific areas and boot up Google Maps while traipsing around the globe (without any network connection, mind you). What's more, GPS-enabled devices will still be able to plot your location with a blue dot on the map, even sans network, according to Rita Chen, product manager of Google Maps for mobile. Oh, and the compass will work as well, which should make orienting yourself that much easier. All that said, this is very likely going to change the way we travel.

But not only for travelers, Offline Maps might be a good way to save battery as well. Of course, we'd have to do some testing first, but I'm guessing that pulling up a cached map might be more battery-friendly than accessing one through an active network connection. If that's the case, I can see users caching maps for all of their most frequently visited destinations (storage space permitting, of course).

For those who may not recall, this feature was actually being tested through Google Labs in July of last year. Back then, though, it was called "Download map area," and it limited you to only a 10-mile radius. Also, it only stored the base map tiles and landmarks on the map, which meant all of Google Maps' other features still required a data connection.

For me, this raises a few questions regarding this newest iteration of downloadable maps. For instance, what are the limitations of Offline Maps? Will offline navigation be available? Also, does the feature cache local data, like the newly incorporated Zagat reviews? Will there be a setting to have it do so, perhaps? We'll find out in the coming weeks, when the offline maps feature is expected to be available to Android users.