Bing Maps gets public transit directions

Microsoft has begun adding public-transportation directions to its Bing Maps service, with directions available initially in 11 metropolitan areas in North America.

"Transit options are available for bus, subway, light rail, and local rail," Brian Hendricks, an associate product manager for Bing Maps, said in a blog post yesterday.

The areas covered in the initial release are Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Vancouver.

The addition helps the service match a feature available already in Google Maps, Bing Maps' primary rival. Online mapping is increasing in importance, not just as a way for people to figure out how to get from one place to another, but also as a way for online mapping companies to profit through locally relevant advertising.
And with mobile devices increasing in importance and capability, online maps are becoming useful for navigating while en route, not just in advance.

Android Market expanding around the world

Google's answer to Apple's App Store, the Android Market, is about to open in many more countries around the world.

According to Google, the Android Market is on its way to 18 more countries--including Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia, and Sweden--bringing the total to 32 countries. Google said that developers who have already made their applications available to "All Locations" will not need to change that status for their programs to be available to the new customers.

Android Market users will likely also find more apps in the store, thanks to Google's decision to allow developers in 20 more countries to sell paid apps in the marketplace, raising the figure to 29 nations altogether. The company said developers in Canada, Switzerland, and Taiwan are among those who can now sell apps.

Developers can start selling apps on the Android Market immediately. Customers looking to buy apps in the new countries can start doing so "over the next two weeks," Google said.

Google said that it plans to bring the Android Market to additional countries in the coming months.

Originally posted at The Digital Home

Google's 'goo.gl' URL shortener open to the public

 

Goo.gl is now open to all Web users looking for a way to make a Web link shorter.

 Google's URL shortening service is now open to the world through a new Web site.

In an age of 140-character communication and mobile devices, URL shorteners are a godsend. However, the most popular third-party ones, such as Bit.ly and TinyURL, are run by smaller companies that aren't guaranteed to stick around for the long run: Google's Matt Cutts said today the company needed to develop its own "goo.gl" URL shortener "for its own products where we knew the shortener wouldn't go away."

So last December, Google started making goo.gl URLs available through the Google Toolbar, and it's now making the service available to anyone with a Web browser at goo.gl, Google announced in a blog post. "We don't intend to overload goo.gl with features, but we do want it to be the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the Web," Googler's Muthu Muthusrinivasan said in the post.

The other Googly thing about URL shorteners is the data they generate, showing where, when, how often, and from which computers people are clicking on those URLs. Web-based analytics charts will be available to those who shorten URLs through goo.gl, and Google will also be able to track that data to help determine which Web links are popular, authoritative, or unsafe.

Twitter, where shortened URLs are an absolute necessity, also has its own URL shortener using the t.co domain.

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