Google Maps Enhances Results

Emily Creech - February 27, 2009

Have you noticed anything different about Google Maps recently?   If you have searched for something in Google Maps, you may have noticed the small sized map markers that are appearing in addition to the usual top 10 listed. This new layer of results enables you to have information about additional business locations relevant to your search, near your area of interest. The normal top 10 listings remain on the left side of the page and have the corresponding larger marker on the map. The addition is the smaller red markers, which represent more locations pertinent to your search.   When you click on the small markers, additional information about that result will appear, just as it will when you click on the larger markers.

For example, when doing a search for “Grocery Store, Boca Raton”, you will see something similar to the screenshot below.   This new feature eliminates the need for the searcher to scroll through multiple pages of results to see additional listings.  

This can be beneficial, as it may alert you of locations that are closer to you than expected.   In areas where there may be numerous relevant results, wouldn’t it be nice to know what is closest, so that you don’t have to travel a longer distance than necessary?   This new feature can help point out those locations.

If you’ve ever wondered how densely populated a particular area is with a certain business, you can find out this approximate information as well.   Below is an example of a search for “Publix, Florida”.  

Currently this is only available on maps.google.com, but it is likely to expand to additional domains as well.