Google Maps just won Best Mobile App at the Crunchies 2012 and Daniel Graf, Google’s director of Google Maps for mobile talked to our own Colleen Taylor after accepting the award. In the interview, Graf noted that it was a unique opportunity for him and his team to start from scratch. Looking ahead, Graf stressed that the next frontier for maps will be about personalization.

Talking to Taylor, Graf noted that the company has a lot in store for Google Maps for the next year. “There is a lot more you can do with a map. If you look at a map and if I look at a map, should it always be the same for you and me? I’m not sure about that, because I go to different places than you do.”

Google obviously personalized virtually all of its search results already these days, so starting to personalize maps (beyond highlighting restaurants and other local businesses you reviewed on Google+ Local) seems like a logical next step.

While Graf didn’t give away too much about Google’s plans for the coming year, he did tease that his team has a lot in store for the next few months. Interestingly, he also noted that he thinks Google now has all of the basic use cases down, so now is the time to do more “interesting” things with maps.

You can see the full interview below:

Crunchbase

• GOOGLE MAPS
• DANIEL GRAF

Product: Google Maps

Website: maps.google.com

Company Google

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

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Person: Daniel Graf

Companies: Google, Kyte

Daniel is an internationally recognized technology pioneer with a rich background in home entertainment, consumer electronics, mobile and Internet services. Currently Daniel is working on Mobile Maps at Google. He originally joined Google in 2011 in an entrepreneurial role at Google’s Mobile Apps Lab. Prior to Google, Daniel was CEO of Kyte, which was founded in 2005. Over 5 years Kyte has become a leading video platform for live and on-demand content. While the Kyte platform is very versatile, it...

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