You can easily tell I’m a Google fan, at least from my frequent posts about the popular Mountain View brand and its tools (Google Maps, Google Reader, Google Sky, Gmail). The thing is, I use Google products on a daily basis, meaning I often find new tools I didn’t know about and which in turn make me like Google apps even more.
A good example is this feature I recently found in Google Maps. It may have been around for a while, but I got to test it only this morning and I loved it! I’m talking about the “More” button you can see on the top right corner of Google maps, with which you can access extra information about the area you’re currently viewing, namely photos, videos and Wikipedia articles.
Want to see it for yourself? Then open up Google Maps and fly to any location you like. Now hover your mouse over the “More” button to enable Photos, Wikipedia entries or both. If you choose Photos, the map will display all the photos related to that area that are hosted on Panoramio, a Google photo sharing service that allows users to geo-locate their pictures. If you enable the Wikipedia option, you’ll see Wikipedia logos all over the map, linking to Wikipedia articles written about that certain area. Both photos and articles open up on a separate window layered over the map when you click on them.
But if what you’re looking for is videos, you need to take a different route. After flying to your favorite location in the world, don’t use the “More” button but focus on the left sidebar instead. You’ll see some photo thumbnails, along with a “Explore this area” link. Click on it and you’ll get an extended sidebar with more photos thumbnails and yes! videos as well. Now click on any thumbnail on the map and you’ll be able to see YouTube videos about that area.
