Google Brings 3D to Maps, Failsafe to Gmail, Wave to Mobiles

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	14th Oct 2009

Google Brings 3D to Maps, Failsafe to Gmail, Wave to Mobiles

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So we've had an Apple round-up, and now Google has its own array-of-news-not-interesting-enough-for-a-standalone-story-but-worth-squashing-together-into-a-slick-amalgamation...

First Google Maps. Google has announced 'Building Maker' and it is ingenious on two levels. 1. It will put Google Maps on a 3D par with Google Earth, and 2. By offering the (admittedly) very intuitive 3D modelling tool to the masses Google gets users to do all the spade work.

Building Maker will work inside all the major browsers and initially be available in 50 cities and in 14 languages before the traditional incremental roll-out. It's actually very cool, so check out the video.

Secondly, Gmail. The swanky web email service has been quiet recently after a manic development period during the first six months of the year, but today sees the launch of a clever new feature. 'Got the wrong Bob?' is a simple new Labs app designed to save your email blushes. In the words of its own creators:

"Doh, have you ever addressed an email too quickly, and included Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend) by accident? If you're emailing more than two people at once, [your gmail address] will check if you meant to include Bob Smith rather than Bob Jones based on the groups of people you email most often."

Got the wrong Bob is a companion tool to 'Don't forget Bob' which can also analyse your mailing patterns and suggest people you might want to include in an email when sending out group mailings. In fact the two may well require each other!

Lastly, Google Wave. It is being widely (blindly?) reported that an iPhone and Android compatible mobile edition of Google Wave is now available to users. This is half true. If you're lucky enough to have a Google Wave account (if you don't you aren't missing much since a collaboration tool doesn't set the world on fire if you've no-one to collaborate with) and login via Android or mobile Safari you will get an error message.

That said, continue anyway and you will come to a reasonably mobile friendly version of Google Wave where you can chat with your fellow Wave buddies (I have 3!). Then again, if you add a homescreen shortcut you will at least get a version which drops the Safari buttons for more screen real estate. It's a start...

Update: Gmail has also now added Google Docs previews directly into emails via the logically named 'Google Docs previews' feature now in Labs. Definitely one well worth checking out.