For Google Maps, winter is coming. Potentially.

As you’ve undoubtedly seen by now, with the upcoming iOS 6 software, Apple intends to replace the Google Maps aspect of their default Maps application with their own, in-house version. Mark Gurman of 9to5 Mac was the first to report this news, and dives into more of the detail behind it, including the 3D aspect. John Paczkowski of AllThingsD confirmed the change. And after talking to my own source, I can beat the dead horse in confirming the switch.

I’ve also heard a little bit more. First of all, iOS 6, which is expected to be shown off in developer preview form at WWDC in June, is internally codenamed “Sundance”. Second, while Paczkowski’s source said the new maps functionality will “blow your head off”, I’ve been told that’s a bit of hyperbole (you think?). Specifically, while the 3D functionality is cool, it’s also not something people are going to use regularly. Think of it like Google Street View — cool, but how often do you actually use it when compared to the regular Google Maps product? (Having said that, I still expect Apple’s 3D maps to be cooler than Google Street View.)

More interesting to me is the implication of this switch. Let’s assume that alongside this change, Apple will also be replacing the default hooks in the iOS SDK that currently use Google Maps. This is a big deal for third party developers. While some choose to use other maps APIs (like Bing Maps, for example), the vast majority go with Google Maps because it’s baked right in and easy to hook up.

If that changes…

Consider Foursquare. They recently made headlines when they switched away from Google Maps on their website. At the same time, they made a point of saying they weren’t switching away from Google Maps on their mobile applications (where maps are obviously the most important). Why not? Again, because Google Maps are standard in both the iOS and Android SDKs. More importantly, unlike with the web, developers aren’t charged to use these maps on mobile. At least not yet.

Google recently made the change to start charging high volume customers of the Google Maps API on the web. Hence, the Foursquare switch, and several others larger customers are now either switching or considering switching. My guess would be that because of iOS, Apple may be the largest user of the Google Maps API right now. It’s not clear if Google charges Apple for this or not. Or if they’re about to start, as they have with other third-parties.

But it doesn’t matter. Apple can afford any charge Google throws their way, and would undoubtedly pay it if they thought it was worth it to ensure iOS remains the best mobile platform out there. This move away from Google Maps is more about controlling essential technology, as John Gruber points out today.

But the side effect of such a switch could seriously harm Google Maps as the de-facto mapping service. Again, because of their very nature, maps are most vital for mobile usage. And if Apple not only pulls iOS out, but takes millions of developers with them, Google Maps could suddenly go from behemoth to vulnerable. (Which makes their decision to start charging large customers all the more dumbfounding — this cannot be a huge source of revenue for Google, no matter the scale.)

Of course, Apple will have to ensure that their mapping product is flawless, or developers will choose to go with Google Maps anyway (assuming that’s still an option — even if it’s slightly more complicated). But given what’s now leaking out about the product, it would seem that after years of work, Apple is finally ready to take on the mapping challenge. And this may be even more problematic for Google than it seems on the surface.

As a quick aside, while there’s not much other iOS 6 information floating around out there right now, there have been whispers backing up Gruber’s assertion that Siri APIs are another possibility. There have also been whispers about Siri for iPad finally coming. Specifically, I’ve been led to believe it’s more of a UI issue than anything else. After all, Apple is using the technology for the Dictation functionality found on the new iPad. They’ve just been working on what Siri for iPad will look like, I’ve been led to believe.

As we’ve seen the past few days, new iCloud functionality should be a key part of iOS 6 as well. And more deep ties into the forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion should be revealed.

There is also some chatter about iTunes 11. It has been a not-so-well-kept secret that Apple has been trying to completely re-write the software for a long time. There have been several false starts and scrapping of projects. It’s believed (but far from confirmed) that Apple may be zeroing in on the major revamp they’re after. And a part of that may be both Apple and the labels warming to a full-on Spotify competitor…

Pure speculation at this point, but fun speculation.

Update: To back-up the “Sundance” information, Nima Moayedi reminds us that Apple has a history of codenaming iOS builds after ski resorts. Sure enough…

[image: 20th Century Fox]

Google’s map data has been baked into the iOS Maps app since the days of the first, thick, aluminum-backed iPhone, but that may no longer be the case once iOS 6 hits the streets. Unnamed sources told 9to5Mac that the Cupertino company would instead take that opportunity to reveal their own Maps application, and those early reports paint a pretty impressive picture.

Astute readers may recall that Apple has been on something of a mapping company shopping spree these past few years — what began with the purchase of Placebase in 2009, continued with Poly9 in 2010, and culminated with Apple snapping up C3 Technologies late last year.

As far as the app itself goes, the biggest addition to the mix is a robust new 3D mode that is said to be a straight implementation of the what C3 was already working on when they were acquired. Considering how damned good some of their 3D maps looked, this should be a real treat (assuming the report isn’t just hot air). Also on deck is an updated street view mode also courtesy of C3, and what would a major revamp be without a new app icon?

While C3′s (and possibly Poly9′s) tech seems to have been used in building (or replacing) features, the purchase of white-label mapping service Placebase presumably allowed Apple to build up their store of map data to the point where they apparently feel comfortable giving Google the boot. Apple has forecast their shift away from reliance on Google in other ways, too — about two months ago, Apple switched from using Google’s map data to data provided by the OpenStreetMaps project (even if it did take them a while to own up to it).

While Apple isn’t expected to fully unveil iOS 6 and all the changes they’ve made until this year’s WWDC in June, if you’re champing at the bit for nifty 3D mapping functionality on your iDevice, apps like UpNext Maps may be able to hold you over until Apple delivers their next big iOS update.

UpNext, an angel funded New York start-up, makes beautiful maps. Using a number of clever views, the team has built a wildly unique way to navigate your city and, more importantly, see buildings, points of interest, and even public transit in real time.

The company, Raj Advani, Vik Advani, Robin Har, and Danny Moon, have been working in mapping for four years and recently released an iPad version of the app.

“UpNext is dynamic, Google Maps is static,” said Moon. “Google Maps is a navigation-centric map. Its cartography geared toward navigating road networks, relegating other map details to the background.”

“We put special emphasis on making our maps fast, highly stylized, and highly interactive. You can tap on buildings to see the businesses inside; better, you can tap on subway stations to see actual trains moving along the map with estimated arrival times (where the data is available). Making every part of the map interactive is important to us,” he said.

The team has a background in video games, which gave them the impetus to rethink the way maps are rendered and displayed. “Maps historically were about more than finding your way around: they were immersive and evocative; emotional, even. Our eventual goal is to bring this sense of wonder back to maps.”

There are three ways to explore the maps. “Immerse” gives you vector based, textured cities with roadways and tappable buildings while “Explore” focuses on venues and POIs. “Navigate” helps you navigate a vehicle through the city without distraction. They also include real-time train information and multi-model routing so you can plan your own routes through a city.

The app currently covers 22 enhanced 3D cities and over 60 cities in total. While it’s no Google Maps beater (yet), it definitely offers a brisk and compelling alternative to Google’s staid yellow and blue.

Product Page

Google just launched an update for Google Maps for Android that brings three interesting new features to the app: integration with Google Offers, support for Google Business Photos and indoor walking directions.

With the new Google Offers integration, Android users will now be able to see which nearby stores currently offer deals. This, says Google, includes both offers that can be purchased, as well as “free” offers that are available immediately. Users can also opt-in to receive notifications when there are offers near them. Google, it is worth noting, also offers a dedicated Google Offers app for Android as well.

The Google Maps for Android app now also lets users in the U.S. and Japan (the two countries where venue owners can already upload their own indoor maps) get indoor walking directions. This is clearly an area Google has been working on for a while. Earlier this year, the company, for example, launched an Android app that allows venue owners to help Google improve its indoor location accuracy.

The app now also features support for Google Business Photos (a.k.a. Indoor Street View). With this feature, users can get access to 360-degree panoramic images from inside local stores and restaurants. These images are now highlighted on every participating business’s Place page in Google Maps for Android.

Google Maps, Bing Maps and a number of startups have been offering indoor maps for large venues like airports, malls and stadiums for quite a while. The problem with indoor mapping, though, is that it’s pretty hard for these companies to actually tell you exactly where you are on these maps. GPS obviously doesn’t work well in these spaces and WiFi and cell tower triangulation just isn’t very accurate. Now, however, Google has come up with a plan to improve indoor location accuracy for venues in Google Maps: venue owners who have uploaded their floor plans to Google’s mapping service can now use a new Android app to provides Google with feedback about how accurate its predictions are for their locations. All they need is an Android device (including tablets) that runs Android 2.3 or up.

Once installed, the app will tell its users where to go in the venue and while they walk, the app collects data about nearby WiFi hotspots, as well as data from local cell towers. Once it has collected and analyzed this data, Google can more reliably tell its users where they are inside the building. One specific feature that this process should improve is Google’s ability to tell you which floor you are on.

It’s a shame that Google is limiting this app to users who have uploaded their own floor plans. It would have been nice to see a fully crowdsourced version of this app that would allow anybody to help out with this project. Throw in a few gamification elements or other rewards (chances are you are in a commercial venue already, after all) and Google would have an army of volunteers in no time.

Have you started seeing images in online reCAPTCHAs that look suspiciously like house numbers pulled from Google Street View? Well, as it turns out, that’s exactly what they are. Google confirmed it’s currently running an experiment that involves using its reCAPTCHA spam-fighting system to improve data in Google Maps by having users identify things like street names and business addresses.

reCAPTCHA, for those unfamiliar, is the system originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University to improve upon the use of CAPTCHAs (aka, the “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart”) – it’s the distorted text meant to stop bots from signing up for online accounts. The reCAPTCHA technology was acquired by Google in 2009, and if you use the web, you’ve definitely used it before. It’s what puts those security questions on websites that ask you to identify the words and numbers in the pictures displayed to verify you’re human.

The system is designed to cut down on spam and fraud, but it also helps digitize the text in printed materials, like books and newspapers. Google has been using reCAPTCHA to digitize content for Google Books, for example, as well as for the Google News archives.

Over the past few days, however, some users have been seeing another type of reCAPTCHA appear – photographs. The new reCAPTCHAs present an image where one side contains the warped text users are familiar with, while the other side shows a somewhat blurry (as if zoomed in) photo of numbers. The numbers are clearly street addresses, which has led to some speculation that Google was pulling these from Google Street View.

One place where this new reCAPTCHA has been known to pop up is on Google’s AdWords website, and specifically on the page hosting the keyword tool. You won’t always see this new reCAPTCHA, though – I refreshed this page a dozen or more times this morning, for example, and still couldn’t get it to appear. Your mileage may vary.

The above image is one example of what the new reCAPTCHAs look like.

A larger collection of these images also recently appeared on the Blackhatworld forums (below):

According to a Google spokesperson, the system isn’t limited to street addresses, but also involves street names and even traffic signs. We haven’t spotted any of those other types in the wild, though.

Says Google:

We’re currently running an experiment in which characters from Street View images are appearing in CAPTCHAs. We often extract data such as street names and traffic signs from Street View imagery to improve Google Maps with useful information like business addresses and locations. Based on the data and results of these reCaptcha tests, we’ll determine if using imagery might also be an effective way to further refine our tools for fighting machine and bot-related abuse online.

Although many users are just now noticing the new images appear, Google says the experiment actually began a couple of weeks ago.

Image credit: Ian for the top photo; Blackhatworld user “dirtbag” (heh.)

Well, Google certainly seems to be having a productive day so far. In addition to the unveiling of their Account Activity feature and a handful of new Google+ Hangout apps, Google has also pushed out a considerable update to their Google Maps for Android app.

Now at version 6.5, Google Maps now packs improved support for devices with high pixel density displays — any device that falls into that category will now get high-resolution map tiles that make for more detailed views that are less cluttered by unnecessarily large labels.

Google specifically points at devices like the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, and the Droid RAZR as receiving those high-resolution map tiles, but your handset doesn’t need to be quite that fancy in order to benefit. Google’s definition of “high density” refers to a pixel density of 240 ppi, though I was told by a Google rep that devices with pixel densities as low as 200 ppi will still notice a difference.

As Ice Cream Sandwich continues to trickle out to devices (though maybe not as fast as some people had hoped), the Google Maps update also packs a revamped look for their navigation homescreen in ICS. Now users can simply swipe left and right to, well, navigate the between their contacts’ addresses and previously starred locations.

Rounding out the package is the ability to set your preferred mode of public transit, so those of you who are wary of subways can choose routes that rely exclusively on buses (or vice versa). Users can also choose a specific route type to help get them moving — think routes that prioritize sitting over walking, or routes with the fewest number of transfers.

The update is waiting for you in the Google Play Store now, so those of you who detest walking should really give it a go.

Back in August, Google announced that it was teaming up with nonprofit Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon to map a small section of the massive Rio Negro river (tributary of the Amazon) near Manaus. As expected, it took quite a while, but the results are now available for you to play with.

The area they covered is a sort of inlet west of Manaus and the coastline northwards from there. The idea is apparently just to provide a way for people to see what it’s like there without hopping on a plane and chartering a boat. The project resulted in 50,000 still pictures, which have been stitched into 50km of shore, forest, and village for your Street Viewing pleasure.

Considering the time and effort required, it’s amazing how small the patch of coverage really is, in comparison with the vastness of the Amazon. They say that the age of discovery is over, and in a way it is, but it’ll be a long time before you can wander freely in the jungle or all over Antarctica in any kind of detail.

This trip probably worked as a sort of proving ground for Google’s street view equipment, as well. They left a bunch with the locals, but presumably they already learned much from how it fared during the Apocalypse Now-esque process of capturing nature in a fairly raw form. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be sending out teams or robots all over the world in a few years.

The Google blog post has a lot of highlights for you to check out if you’re interested. Predictably, something landed on the camera assembly at one point, and there are probably a few other Easter eggs to be found if you’re thorough.

Lastly, here’s a little behind-the-scenes video that shows how they captured some of the images shown here. The Street View Trike doesn’t look like it was made with off-road in mind.

Maps have been around for millenia, but for a significant chunk of that time, they remained static, two-dimensional forms, rendered by hand on paper. It sounds crude now, even as services like Wave have us mapping our worlds with our smartphones like explorers of old. Today, with the ridiculous amount of data available on the Web and in the cloud, maps have become something else entirely, our surroundings coming alive in wizbang, interactive 3-D displays.

Throw in the level of granularity online maps are capable of, even on mobile, and your once-enthralling lists have become boring — bordering on analog. Google Maps is a feat in and of itself, but, again, with the wealth of data now available online about local businesses, their hours of operation, menus, websites, deals, and the ability to interconnect all of them based on location, I’ve been waiting for a smart, visual aggregated service like CityMaps.

For those unfamiliar, CityMaps transforms the cities of New York, San Francisco, and Austin (with more to come by year’s end) into block-by-block grids plotted with nearly every local business out there in an effort to help both natives and newcomers navigate their city. What’s cool about CityMaps is that not only does it include all these local storefronts (from restaurants to dry cleaners), it gives users the ability to mouse over them to see the business’ latest tweets, reviews, menus, hours of operation — even offering daily deals available in realtime based on location (with deals showing up as colored dots).

The DealMap was one of the first startups to really nail the plotting of daily deals on an interactive map, and unsurprisingly the startup was scooped up by Google last August. There are plenty of awesome deal aggregators out there, but CityMaps wants to be the next generation, the ultimate aggregator not only of location, local business, and deal data, but also of social data, adding another few layers to the interactive map experience.

Of course, striving to become a meta aggregator means that there’s plenty of opportunity to over-do it, to create a cluttered UI and a disappointing UX. But last week, CityMaps emerged from beta with a cleaner design and a new mapping engine that reduces most of that concern. Users can now see tips and photos from Foursquare, browse deals in realtime, or use Facebook Connect to see social data along with tweets from local businesses refreshed every hour.

The startup also released its iOS app, which brought the services to mobile for the first time, meaning that users can now click on businesses to make dinner reservations via OpenTable (pretty handy), buy movie tickets, find Foursquare deals from local merchants, read reviews, and look up the next BART or subway departure time — from the Web and on mobile. CityMaps Co-founders Elliot Cohen and Aaron Rudenstine tell us that an Android app is on its way in the next month or so, as is an iPad-specific app. The latter in particular will be huge, as the map experience can be a little condensed on the iPhone, which will hopefully result in an awesome user experience when customized for the iPad.

Just as Waze and OpenStreetMap are trying to offer Wikipedia-style, crowdsourced map experiences, this was the original inspiration behind CityMaps, said Cohen, whose background in real estate and urban planning convinced him that the Web was in dire need of a map that went beyond deals and directional navigation, something that combined a virtual representation of a city with White pages business data and friendsourcing. It’s certainly the intersection of a handful of much-buzzed about trends in technology, as every big tech company tries to get a piece of the SoLoMo pie.

And that last piece is really significant, because while services like Yelp, Foursquare, and Google (in about 5 different products) offer various pieces of this, Foursquare is still thought of as a check-in service, Yelp a reviews service, and Google Maps as a directions-providing tool. That gives CityMaps plenty of room to be free from pigeonholing and to define itself as a mix.

My recent experience with Yelp’s mobile app has left a bad taste in my mouth, with slow map rendering and loading, and a reduced user experience. That being said, Yelp offers some of the bast filtering functionality out there in mobileland, allowing local business discovery by easy (sometimes slow-loading) browsing of proximity, price, or whether the service is open or not — and the co-founders assure us that this kind of drilling down is coming soon to CityMaps.

If it adds Google Street Views, more high-level filtering, and another important piece — a meta score for businesses which takes into account Foursquare and Zagat ratings, Yelp reviews, etc., giving the business one overall score, whether it’s based on stars or a number scale — this is going to be one killer business.

Which brings up the matter of revenue streams. It’s not completely clear how CityMaps will make money, it could charge businesses a small fee to fill out their profile page (although it’s doing that for free now), or amplify Twitter and Foursquare for marketing purposes, or do lead generation.

The service just came out of beta last week, so there’s time yet. CityMaps also raised $1 million in angel funding at the end of 2010, and is now officially announcing its $2.5 million Series A round, closed earlier this year. Investors include Dave Leyrer, a former VC, and Dave Levin, president of 360i.com and an angel investor.

The startup’s advisors include Neil Vogel, the co-founder of the Webby Awards and Netted.com as well as Zander Lurie, SVP of Strategic Development at CBS and a board member at SurveyMonkey. Both these advisors and its new infusion of capital will help the startup improve upon its Web UI and continue to add much-needed features that will put its UX above and beyond the other players in the space. But, in doing so, it will very likely become an acquisition target for one of the bigger players, if it isn’t already.

There’s a lot to be said for allowing people to experience a granular view of their city in a much more visual way than just listing points on the map. Building on this will be critical for the startup, as will it be to beef up its infrastructure, making sure that rendering and data processing stay at peak performance as it attempts to roll out into 25 to 30 cities by the end of this year (including a few international locations).

For more on CityMaps, check them out at home on the Web here and on the App Store here.

In more news of Flash’s impending decline, Google is announcing that it’s “deprecating” the Google Maps API (application programming interface) for Flash. This API previously allowed developers to add Google Maps functionality within their Flash-based applications.

However, as of today, use of the API is limited, says Google, with only a small number of applications taking advantage of features unique to the Google Maps API for Flash alone.

The API, which originally launched in May 2008, is similar to the JavaScript version, but designed for use within Flash apps. Developers could use the API for manipulating and adding content to maps through a variety of services, which enabled them to embed interactive maps applications on websites.

The Maps for Flash API isn’t actually being killed off entirely – it’s being deprecated. That means that it will continue to function according to the Maps API Terms of Service, but no new features will be developed, and only “critical bugs, regressions and security issues” will be fixed.

In other words, the API is basically being abandoned.

Flash developers are instead encouraged to migrate applications over the Maps API v3, which offers other benefits like Street View, Fusion Tables integration, Places search, and full support for mobile browsers, says Google. And help is being made available on the Google Maps JavaScript API v3 forum.

The move is not surprising, given the limited interest in the API’s unique features, as noted above. However, in some way, the decision seemingly stands in contradiction to other moves Google has made in recent months in support of Flash. For example, last summer, Adobe and Google jointly announced that the Flash Player would soon be built into the Chrome Web browser going forward, thus eliminating users’ need to download, install and update the plugin separately.

Plus, Google’s mobile operating system is known for its support for Adobe Flash, and Flash-based apps.

In today’s blog post, Google also adds that it continues to support Flash as a development platform in Chrome, too, but the link for more details goes to a dead URL.

Maybe that page got deprecated too?

Update: Google fixed the link. The correct URL is http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=108086.

Google’s push into voice search is no secret: it’s baked into most builds of Android, and Chrome users have been enjoying the search-by-voice feature since July. It wasn’t so much a question of if Google would keep running with it, but where and when would it pop up next.

Google’s Lat Long Blog has that answer for us today, as voice search is now available in Google Maps.

The process is as straightforward as ever: click the microphone icon that now appears in the Google Maps search box and get busy talking. After a bit of testing, accuracy doesn’t appear to be an issue save for a few really dicey names. “Uttar Pradesh” took a few tries, but I can chalk that up to how poorly I tend to enunciate.

While it scores points for verbal accuracy, some Google’s directions are a little flaky. The Lat Long Blog mentions, for example, that you can simply say “directions from Place X to Place Y,” but I couldn’t for the life of me get the place names to pop up in the correctly in the To and From boxes. It took eight tries until I discovered that using the word “directions” in the query like Google suggests really throws everything off.

Tiny oversights like that aside, voice search for Google Maps is generally a blast to use. All you Chrome lovers can feel free to take it for a spin (and report your findings), but everyone else will just have to do it the old-fashioned way.

It’s hard to believe that Google’s Street View has been in use for over four years. What’s more amazing, perhaps, given the rate at which they have canvassed the world’s streets and alleyways, that there is anywhere left unmapped. But while their teams have successfully traced the surfaces of most large cities and a number of other interesting areas, I suppose it won’t come as a surprise that the remote reaches of the Amazon have not yet been put under the lens.

They aim to change that, however, and have detailed in a blog post their plans to Street-View-ize a large section of the river. It’s being done in collaboration with the Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon, a nonprofit working in the area.

To map the entire length of the Amazon, its tributaries, and distributaries, is the work of years, however, so Google won’t be attempting that just yet (though there are plenty of spots to drop the orange guy if you’re curious). For now, they’re focusing their efforts on a 50km stretch of the Rio Negro starting around Manaus, right about at the center of this image:

They’ll also be going down the dirt paths to small villages with the Street View Trike, mapping all the while, and will set up the tripod they use to show business interiors to give a panoramic taste of village life. And as a little parting shot of charity, they’ll be leaving behind some equipment, probably some cameras and laptops, for FAS and the locals to use. The whole thing is sort of a publicity play for sustainability, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

No word on when the project will be complete — from what I’ve read (travelogues from the 1800s, but still), these kinds of trips generally take longer than expected — but you can see some more pictures of their work over at the Google blog post.

ECOtality (NASDAQ: ECTY) — a San Francisco company that’s building electric vehicle (EV) technology and infrastructure in the U.S. and China— unveiled its Blink Network mobile app (screenshot, above) to help users find and reserve a nearby, available charging station at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference in Washington D.C. Reservation and status-update features made ECOtality’s app distinct from other charger-finders for about a minute.

On Monday, however, Coulomb Technologies announced an upgrade to the ChargePoint app, including similar functionality. ECOtality’s app will be available for English-language users of iOS and Android devices in the next few weeks via BlinkNetwork.com, while Coulomb’s ChargePoint app is available now.

Both companies map the charging stations within the networks that they install, own and operate on behalf of their customers. Both companies supply stations and software to: companies with large vehicle fleets; employers that want to offer EV charging at work; retail store and garage owners; homeowners; and municipalities or utilities.

Several other web and mobile charging station finders, however, map any and all charging stations — which could make more sense for cross-country drivers. One such app is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Alternative Fueling Station Locator. The app uses Google Maps technology to show the location of publicly accessible EV charging stations, clean vehicle equipment suppliers, and biodiesel, hydrogen and other alternative fueling stations.

The open source site CarStations.com, which is expected to spin out a mobile product this year, includes user-contributed data a la Wikipedia to show charging and clean fuel stations.

A newer entrant, the PlugShare app by Xatori (images, below) maps publicly accessible charging stations, along with volunteer homes or businesses that are willing to share their outlets with EV and hybrid-plugin drivers.

PlugShare today claimed that its users comprise the “largest consumer electric vehicle charging network” in the United States. According to company reports, about 1,500 outlets have been shared under the PlugShare collaborative consumption model to-date, across 48 states in the U.S. The app has 13,000 some users so far.

Xatori chief technology officer*, Armen Petrosian, said that PlugShare is functioning as a kind of social network, and discussed features the company plans to add to it:

We are seeing two main types of communication occurring in the [PlugShare] network. One type of communication occurs between members who have shared outlets 10 to 100 miles apart…and are making a request to charge when one member is away from home. Users who are 5 miles apart or less— [sometimes want] to chat with a like-minded individual. I’ve experienced this first-hand as several members in my neighborhood have contacted me just to say hello, see if I have an EV, etc.

There are a number of features that we hope to add [to PlugShare] but a couple stand out right now. One is a reputation system so users can rate charging locations (private and public) and add comments. The second is a way to add or edit public charging station information, so that it can be kept up-to-date by the community.

Xatori has not yet determined how the open data and volunteer-inspiring app will generate revenue. The company is focused on building a large user base, first.

Meanwhile, Coulomb’s ChargePoint app helps the company generate fees from mobile payments— fifty cents per transaction, plus 7.5% of whatever the station-owner adds as a transactional fee for drivers.

A veteran engineer and advocate for clean vehicles, Kristen Helsel, vice president of EV Solutions at Aerovironment, believes that apps of the greatest use to electric vehicle drivers, and the industry, should present data about charging stations agnostically. Aerovironment’s own EV charger technology is sold on a “white label” basis, and is included in a number of other brands’ stations and networks. Helsel explained her position further:

“At Aerovironment, we work to enable all of the mapping services to have the most up to date information about where we install public charging stations. We don’t expect customers just to rely on us. What’s really important is that the information is available, and that drivers experience confidence when they want to access EV infrastructure.

It will be just as important in the future to make data available about all renewables; where are the chargers that are powered by wind or solar, where are the biofuel stations? The networks can go up, and can be limited. But we have to have open architecture in terms of the data.”

Richard Lowenthal, founder and chief technology officer of Coulomb Technologies noted:

“Home grown apps are great. They don’t offer features, and real-time data like we can. We offer [back-end] support with billing and asset management that tells you which stations are working and not, lets our customers [who purchase Coulomb's charging stations] set pricing and more. We have phone support for drivers; if someone is having trouble charging, they don’t go into the store, or to the receptionist, they call our 1-800 number.

As long as we need to offer our own app to show off all of the benefits and features of our network, we will add to and offer it as a standalone. We do have an open API and offer data to everyone who wants it, PlugShare, TomTom, NREL or anyone. We are not trying to stifle any of them, in fact it’s quite the opposite.”

ECOTality’s president and chief executive officer, Jonathan R. Read, believes there is value in providing an app that’s brand-specific, as well. In an interview with TechCrunch he said:

“I take my hat off to the community service providers, I really do. There’s sort of a brotherhood in the industry. I think that for this EV movement and charge infrastructure to succeed, though, it has to be commercially viable. We cannot rely on good will and trust, or government completely.

We need to make sure that EVs and charge infrastructure can stand alone, make money, be profitable so [clean energy] can proliferate with or without subsidies and volunteers.

I think the task of building EV infrastructure in the U.S. will be somewhat like the early stages of the cell phone business. We look to create the largest network, and provide the greatest depth of service through our apps. We’ve built the Blink Network app to be a part of an overall system that will eventually include not just the ability to make reservations, but also to make payments, use home energy management programs and devices on the go, experience connectivity and access a network of hundreds of thousands of charging stations.”

ECOtality — with the help of a recovery act grant from the DOE — is set to install approximately 5,700 commercial charging stations in the U.S. by the end of this year.

Correction*: In my original draft of this post, I wrote that Armen Petrosian was a chief executive officer of Xatori. He is chief technology officer. Forrest North is founder and CEO of Xatori, Inc. Sorry Forrest!

It’s hard to believe, but for the last few years Google Maps users in the United States have been missing out on a pretty important feature (though there’s a decent chance you’ve never heard of it). It’s not particularly sexy, and many of the people reading this post will probably never take advantage of it, but we’ll all reap the benefits over the coming months. Meet Google Map Maker.

The feature is pretty self-explanatory: it allows users to create (or, in the case of the US, edit) Google Maps, and it’s already had a major impact worldwide. You see, in the United States, we’ve been able to access online maps for years because companies have been plotting and licensing the data to services like MapQuest and Google. But in many countries, there wasn’t any data for online maps to speak of — so Google created a web-based tool so people could create their own. Edits are submitted by users, and after a moderation process, they’re added to Google Maps.

The feature has been used to generate maps for 183 countries and regions wordwide, and Google says that the number of people  globally with access to detailed maps of their neighborhoods has jumped from 15% to 30% because of it.

But why is it coming to the United States?

Lalitesh Katragadda and Manik Gupta, who lead the product, say that the tool can be used to give a greater level of detail to Google Maps in the US. We’ll now be able to edit (and access) more detailed maps of university campuses, biking and walking trails, and other areas that aren’t traditional roads.

Each edit submitted goes through a review process — Google looks at your past submission history to see if you’re trustworthy, and a small in-house team reviews each edit before it’s pushed live to Google Maps (users can also flag incorrect data). Once an edit is approved, though, it goes live for all of Google Maps users within a few minutes, so it won’t necessarily take a long time to see a change go live.

For now the feature is only available via the web interface, but it sounds like it will eventually make its way to mobile platforms as well (it would be easier to make submissions and corrections in the field).

Building interiors aren’t included as part of this release, but I suspect we’ll see these added down the line (imagine being able to navigate through a mall or office building). You can, however, add building footprints, including 3D versions of buildings.

To coincide with the US launch, Map Maker users everywhere are getting a couple new features: Street View can be used from within the editor, and there’s now an advanced search engine with more granular controls.

With all the buzz surrounding electric cars, it goes without saying there are a few concerns from customers. The biggest of concerns — range anxiety — could be lessened if people could easily find a place to plug in.

Now, thanks to Google, EV owners can type in “EV charging spots” near your location and up populates a list. I did it for my area and I found two less than a mile from my house. What’s also cool about the two I found is that they offer both 120V and 240V ports and there is no cost to use them — or to park!! I’ll assume that the ports are the standard SAE J1772, that common 5-pin plug on every vehicle. 

Audi was once known as the German car that came with all-wheel-drive. That notoriety is changing and Audi is becoming a huge player in the tech game; their interfaces are fantastic and run with exceptional speed and style. And now, they are bringing the internet to their navigations systems: the Google maps of navs, if you will.

With the new A6, Audi plans to integrate internet delivered traffic, rather than satellite, from sources like Inrix and Google Maps. Unlike previous systems powered by Sirius Traffic, the new internet-based systems can tell traffic information every 20-30 feet, rather that the old mile-by-mile. This is increasingly important in urban areas with many traffic lights — instead of knowing which block of blocks are slow, you will now be able to zero in down to the block.

With all this information comes great direction. The nav system in the Audi will now take you through the fastest route — perfect for getting in and out of cities with ease.

The system is launching with the name Audi Online Services and will use a data plan to to deliver traffic, road conditions and other information to the system. In Europe, the data will be accessed by a SIM card reader — european customers can often have their cards cloned. In the US, data will be accessed from a Bluetooth enabled smartphone. In addition to the traffic and nav routing, the data connection can be used for Google-searching points of interest. Expect greater search capabilities with up-to-date results, than from previous in-car systems.

All other manufacturers, please take note of this. The Germans are bringing the technology we are already familiar with and that we really want. Rollout will begin with the A6, followed by the A8, A4 and Q7.

Press Release

Well, if you do remember it, and are as keen as I am to see more, Google have now released a video showing off all the new features as run on a shiny new Nexus S.

Best of all, we’ve gone and embedded it for you, below!

Marvel at the 3G buildings! Gasp in awe at the compass mode! Live vicariously through Ken Norton!

You don’t have to do any of those things if you don’t want to, but I think it made my day a little more interesting.

[via Phone Arena]

The Google Map App on Android phones will soon get a major upgrade which will allow it to render map images a lot faster, incorporate 3D buildings, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map. In a talk this evening at the D Mobile conference, Android chief Andy Rubin gave a sneak peak of the new app.

At the heart of the new app is a dynamic map rendering engine which draws maps as you use them, and offers smoother transitions when zooming in and out of different levels. The dynamic rendering will also make it possible to start to show 3D buildings as you zoom into the street-level view. The touch screen will allow you to tilt and rotate the map and buildings.

The new maps load faster because they require 100 times less data each. Instead of downloading the entire map image for each level, the app downloads meta data which describes the entire map at all different levels and then renders the appropriate sector on the fly. This will start to give Google Maps offline capabilities on mobile phones. It may be possible to cache a map of an entire city on the phone. And for people who use the turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps, when the new app comes out it will be able to recalculate the route even without a data connection.

The Google Maps app will also use the built-in compass on Android phones to automatically flip the orientation of the map to the person holding the phone. That orientation feature will come in handy when you are coming out of a subway station in an unfamiliar stop, or exiting a building.

When Google put their faith in Wave, an ambitious new project last year, they knew it was a gamble. But a big part of it was the team behind the project. A team led by Lars Rasmussen, the engineer best known as the co-creator of the hugely successful Google Maps. And now he’s left the company. And from what we hear, he’s heading to Facebook. (Update below — he is.)

Rasmussen confirmed his departure on his Facebook page. Yesterday was his last day of work at Google. He didn’t give any indication where he’ll be heading next, other than he’d be “a whole big ocean closer” (he was living in Australia where the Wave team was based). But the fact that he put all this info on Facebook is telling. From what we’re hearing, he will be joining Facebook.

Neither Facebook nor Google has returned our request for comment yet.

This is a huge loss for Google and a huge gain for Facebook. But it’s hardly surprising that Rasmussen is leaving Google given that the search giant killed his ambitious Wave project barely a year after it was first unveiled.

Rasmussen’s defection is the latest in a series of moves from Google to the pre-IPO Facebook. But his move is likely the biggest one since Chrome OS lead Matthew Papakipos made the same jump in June.

We’ll be very interested to hear what he’s working on at the social network. No word yet on what his brother Jens, who also helped co-create both Maps and Wave, will be joining him there.

Update from Facebook:

As matter of policy, we do not comment on potential employees until they start.

In other words, when he gets back from his vacation in between jobs, they’ll confirm.

It’s also worth noting as well that current Facebook CTO Bret Taylor was heavily involved in the launch of Google Maps.

Update 10/31: Facebook has now confirmed the Rasmussen hiring with the following statement:

It’s true that Lars Rasumussen has joined Facebook.  Lars has a knack for building elegant, powerful products that people love.  We’re thrilled he’ll be part of Facebook’s world-class engineering team to help design transformative technologies that will improve how people connect and interact online.

Google has just released a series of updates for their Google Maps Android application. Two of these updates are useful: Place page reviews and the ability to filter search results. But one of them is really interesting: real-time location updating in Google Latitude.

To be clear, this feature is an experimental one that Google is trying out. But if you enable it, your friends on the service will be able to see where you are in real-time (and vice versa, if they enable it too). Previously, location updates through Latitude would occur regularly, but not in real-time. The reason is that this constant sending of location data can wear down mobile phone batteries much quicker. Many service that update location in the background instead tend to ping towers to see if you’ve moved periodically.

But this new real-time feature is meant for short-term usage if you’re going to meet up with a friend, for example. It make sense to make this a more temporary option for both battery life, and because of the creepy factor. Even if people opt-in to using Latitude, if you know you’re being tracked in real-time, that’s fairly creepy.

Sounds awesome. Can’t wait to try it out.

This is all a part of Google Maps 4.6 for Android (1.6 and later). It’s available now in the Market or if you click here from your device.