Google released a new UI for Google Maps yesterday. The new interface features a pop out Pegman who is now draggable on to the map. Dragging Pegman on to a StreetView-able location will launch StreetView in full screen view. Holding Pegman over a StreetView-able location will show a preview of that location.

There is also a new compass feature that lets you change the viewing direction simply by dragging your mouse to the desired angle.

When in StreetView, the old map interface exists as a mini map in the bottom right corner, but this can be extended to half the screen.

As a result of all this, gone is the ‘StreetView’ box next to the old ‘Traffic’, ‘Satellite’ and ‘Terrain’ boxes.

Watch the video for all the features and to listen to Pegman tell you about all the features himself, visit Blogoscoped for a comparison with the old UI, or read the Google LatLong blog for a full overview of the features.

Want to make your Google experience even less enjoyable? Then head to Google Labs and enjoy the sound (and animation) of an explosion every time you hit that promote button. Apparently, the sound effect was recorded by Sergey himself which of course makes it completely bearable.

[from Google Blogoscoped]

First we must answer the question, what’s Google’s intention with SearchWiki? Is it:

(a) For Joe the Plumber to help him find that web result the second (or nth) time he enters his favourite search query

(b) For the tech elite (”I’m a mac”) to participate in helping Google provide great results

If it’s (a) then…

No, Arrington’s opinion matters as much as your score in Super Mario Bros when you’ve just lost your last life.

Sure, it’s valid. Let’s be clear, I’m not saying Arrington shouldn’t have said what he said, or that what he’s said isn’t relevant, or even that he’s wrong. But does it *matter*? Do Google care?

Firstly he’s not an average user, and neither is any other tech blogger (or any blogger for that matter). A few SEO’s have been vocal about SearchWiki too, but again they aren’t your average user.

Second, the influence they have, whilst significant, isn’t an audience of average users. TechCrunch has a lot of readers and significant influence…but influence within tech circles. Perhaps that’s unfair (maybe ‘tech circles’ isn’t a well defined phrase) but I’m guessing TechCrunch readers aren’t your average Google user either.

Third, Google made a a lot of noise about this. Bigger than even a site like TechCrunch could ever make. Sites like BBC and the NY Times picked up the story. Many blogs picked up the story and fell into line with a ‘We love Google’ stance. Wouldn’t Arrington’s (and others’) stance be drowned out by all the noise?

Google haven’t made SearchWiki for the mac tech elite. They’ve made it for Joe the Plumber who wants to make sure that when he enters that search query again tomorrow he won’t spend all his time searching through the results again. That’s why Arrington’s opinion doesn’t matter, however well founded it might be. Google don’t care.

But if it’s (b) then…

Yes we can it does matter, as importantly as eggs in pancakes.

Seriously, Joe the Plumber isn’t ever going to realise Google have changed something like this - it’s only going to be ‘I’m a mac’ who ever uses (and complains) about something like this.

Sure, the tech elite aren’t the majority of Google users, so if Google make them angry and they flock to Live its not a disaster. They probably don’t click on PPC ads anyway. But isn’t this kind of feature a feature made for these types of people? People like Arrington, tech bloggers and their readers? If they don’t use it, who will? If most people don’t even realise that the links they’ve been clicking on at the top of the search results are really paid ads (apparently most people don’t), are they really going to spot a small change to the Google interface?

Once you’ve made your mind up about that then there’s more to consider.

Google’s mistakes

Do they really want to influence search rankings with this kind of voting system? If so, it’s a mistake to make it available only to users with a Google Account. Is it a dig at Digg? Then it’s a mistake not to allow a user to see changes another user has made.

What do you think? Do you love it or hate it? Why have Google done it? Does Arrington’s opinion matter to Google?

Google errors are rare, but I still thought its not worth posting about and breaking the Bloggle silence. Google Analytics has been down for at least an hour now. It’s all over Twitter.

It’s an annoyance but I would let Google off if it means they are doing some kind of update. I doubt it though, since if that were the case I’d have thought they’d include that in their error message rather than the exasperating ‘Thank you for your patience’.

Is this worldwide or just a European issue?

When is “art” not art? It’s not art when it involves people just dressing up in stupid clothes for Google StreetView. /rant

Street With A View is an “art” project by Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley who teamed up with some residents in Pittsburgh and the Google StreetView team to stage a number of scenes that would be photographed and appear on StreetView.

Street With A View introduces fiction, both subtle and spectacular, into the doppelganger world of Google Street View.

I don’t see too much of the subtle fiction but there sure is a lot of the spectacular including this picture of a woman dressed up as ham, as in the meat.

To see more of these pictures (how can you resist) just head over to the website where you’ll find a scene by scene breakdown, videos, and the names of the crazy people that took part.

Enjoy. But don’t call it art.

During the tour, the Duke of Edinburgh chatted to Matthew Trewhella, a developer advocate who promotes his organisation’s products to companies.

He asked the Google worker, who was dressed casually in a hooded top, chinos and trainers: “Just come back from jogging?”

One is amused.

A group of twenty tech elite were in Cyprus last weekend and were partying as if the dot com boom had just begun. They posted a lip sync video of the song “Don’t stop believing” which they made during some of their clearly more sober moments.

Among the group were, Brittany Bohnet of Google, Mike Hudack of Blip.tv, Dave Morin and Aaron Sittig of Facebook, Sam Lessin of Drop.io and Jessica Vascellaro, the Wall Street Journal’s Silicon Valley beat reporter.

I think YouTube needs the equivalent of Gmail’s Goggles to help people decide if they REALLY do want to post that video.

The problem is that the video was released just as the effects of the Credit Crunch (US read Credit Crisis) were starting to hit Silicon Valley hard. Startups were laying off staff, established companies were laying off staff (eBay), Google’s stock took a turn for the worse and Yahoo…well it’s just lucky that shares can’t go below zero.

On the plus side, it’s a catchy song.

[via TechCrunch]

Yes we all knew today would be a bad day for trading…but Google Finance is showing it as being far more catastrophic than anyone expected. Earlier, Kirby Witmer and others saw Google Finance showing a 1200 point drop for the Dow Jones index. That really would be terrible. Like end of the world terrible.

Fortunately, it seems to be just a bug. Big sighs of relief all round.

[via]

Looks like Google Maps have begun inserting AdSense ads into the bottom of maps with the ads being related to the place being searched for. Digital Inspiration reported this as a new feature, and I’ve certainly not seen it before. I’m seeing this on lots of places in the UK - whether big or small.

Update: These are actually local business ads when there are local business ads available to show - but written as text ads at the bottom of the page.

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn’t send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can’t always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we’re launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

Huzzah for Gmail. Now with Mail Goggles enabled, you’ll have to answer some maths problems before you can send your message, the idea being that by completing them you’ll verify you’re in a fit state to send such an email. Gmail blog writes:

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it’s active in the General settings.

Another helpful feature from Gmail. To enable this feature, head to Gmail, settings and click Labs.

Perhaps this feature would have helped a UK water company who recently sent out the personal details of 200 customers in a mass email.