New Google Map

Just got approval to access the new Google Map interface. It was a white washed map. Most of the features are gone. Just left the map/satellite view, location search and direction. Even the Street View is gone.

I was eager to try the cycling direction. Unfortunately, it is not available for Singapore yet.

I must admit that the 3D building view is a bit difficult to see. I still prefer the old 2D view.

There is a new feature. "Explore" shows you some pictures of the area and when you point to it, the location is shown in the map. For tourists, it may be good. For locals, it may not be so useful. Luckily it is default minimized.

The "traffic" feature is nice. It must be a real time indicator otherwise it is useless. Not sure how the refresh is done.

The "transit" feature is not much of a use. It is just a MRT map overlaid onto the background and highlighted.

The "direction" feature is a refreshing one. It showed all the routes available on the map. You could set it to "avoid toll" and "avoid highway". I just tried one from East Johor Bahru (Masai) to Bukit Panjang. Well, the route actually suggest I go all the way west to Second link instead of the much shorter Causeway link. Maybe the traffic condition is taken into consideration. Walking and cycling direction is still not available yet (in SG I guess).

The new map interface has become my default maps view. There is an option to go back to the classic view (the old Google map).

I now realize that Map Engine Lite and the new map are splinters of the old one. The former is re-engineered to make route plotting much easier (and less flexible) to use. Only Geeks like me would want to use the former while most people only uses the latter.