Microsoft Pulls Fake Google Apps from Windows Phone Store

By Emil Protalinski at TNW:

Microsoft today pulled six fake Google apps from the Windows Phone Store, after we contacted the company about the issue. The apps in question were: “Hangouts,” “Google Voice,” “Google Search,” “Google+,” “Google Maps,” and “Gmail – email from Google.”

All of these are published by a “Google, Inc” (instead of “Google Inc.”) and priced at $1.99 each. The only app that Google offers for Windows Phone is its search app, and the publisher is “Google Inc.”

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Google Opens The New Google Maps For Web To Everyone

Remember that shiny new Maps web interface that Google started showing off at I/O back in May? It’s here!

Technically, the new Maps interface has actually been here for a while… assuming you signed up for an invite shortly after it was announced and were able to make it through Google’s invite queue before they opened the floodgates today. (I signed up a few hours after the announcement and just got my invite a week or two ago.)

Need a refresher on what’s new? Here’s the bulk of it:

• A new, fullscreen interface
• Maps now uses vector data rather than graphical tiles for faster loading and handling
• You can now zoom way, way out. As in, out into space. They’ve built in a Google Earth-esque planetary view, assuming you’re on a beefy enough computer running a compatible browser (Chrome or Firefox)
• Photo Tours that let you explore famous locations through a series of stitched-together, user-submitted photos. It’s more trippy than it is useful, but it’s still worth checking out. (To see one, go to a major city [like San Francisco] and click the little expansion arrows in the very bottom right)
• Most routes will automatically show public transport alternatives alongside your driving options
• Quick comparison charts for public-transport options, graphing the difference in stops/overall time

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Google Rolls Out Massive Street View Update

 By Carly Page at Search Engine Watch:
Google has started rolling out its biggest update to Street View ever, updating 250,000 miles of roads.

As well as updating hundreds of thousands of miles of roads, Google has doubled its special collections, adding indoor views of places such as Elsinore Castle in Denmark, and has announced that it's increasing Street View coverage in a number of areas.

"We're increasing Street View coverage in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Canada. And we're launching special collections in South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil and Mexico, among others," Google announced in a blog post.

Although this massive Street View update comes amidst Apple's iOS 6 mapping dramas, even those who upgraded to Apple's latest mobile operating system can take advantage of Google's new Street View features. It's accessible via Google's web application, so iDevice owners can simply point their web browsers to maps.google.com.





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