Google Launches Google Maps For Mobile – Facebook Places Affected?

Just a few days back, Facebook Places was launched; and today it was Google’s turn to announce that Google Maps especially for the Mobile, which marked its achievement of reaching around 100 million users.

I must say, Google has a sense of “Perfect Timing”. Google Maps, which is designed especially for the Mobile devices now, has around 100 million monthly users, using this service on different mobile devices. This information is provided very timely on the Google Blog and is written by Vic Gundotra, the head of Google maps mobile. Care to note here, this Google’s action has compelled Facebook to share the limelight in the web arena. These days, Vic is more involved in running efforts of Google to fight against the increasing popularity of Facebook within Social Networking; this particular project being tentatively named as Google Me. Accordingly, everything points in one single direction, Google by no means will let Facebook alone, take away all the limelight.

Gundotra in his blog has highlighted a few of the popular features of Google Maps, for example My Location. My Location lets the users track their location using phones, even when they haven’t activated GPS features. The other interesting feature is the navigation that adds street-side photographs as well as voice guidance, and thus turns any ordinary cell phones into an all-inclusive navigation device. Latitude was also specially mentioned, which is rather sidelined feature and is largely used today by the Android users for sharing their location as well as track there whereabout’s of their friends. Place Pages are also mentioned in the blog. Added last year it provides a layer of meta-data for example photos and reviews regarding all its locations.

The latter mentioned two features also, which outline the heart of the new-launched Facebook Places. Facebook’s Latitude enables you to track your friends and share your location. Facebook and Google mutually shares Place Pages, not merely for name, however they also provide a great deal of same information.

Gundotra analysis favours Facebook more, rather than Google, being a bit contrary in nature. It has highlighted all the missing social efforts of Google – the people. In addition, Facebook Places allows its users to tag their friends within a location; moreover Place Pages tracks who all like a location as well as who all have checked in there.

For giving a break to all controversies regarding the timing of this blog, a Google representative informed that the post timing of Google Maps was absolutely innocuous. He said that the post was issued by them when they have reached this exciting milestone.

The Comparison – The version developed by Google is centred more on data and technology, while Facebook has also looked after the interactions between people at its heart. Facebook doesn’t provide the basic information about any particular place, as it is done by Google. However it is involved more in tracking whether anyone from your friends have visited the same place in the past, moreover their opinion about it, as well as informs you who else is present at the place at the same time.

What’s in store for Me ? Well, Two Options are always better than One !!