Google Maps for Android updated to bring Latitude home, keywords to Hotpot ratings

by Matthew Rogers on April 5, 2011 at 03:30 AM
  Barely one month after an update that brought Latitude and Hotpot closer than ever, Google's updated Maps for Android again to further sweeten the deal.

This time around, Latitude seems to have gotten the most attention, but Places a.k.a. Hotpot hasn't been left entirely out of the mix. For Latitude, Google's added a feature for setting a "home" location, as well as the ability to check into it. For the folks who chose to enable it, they can now view their Location History dashboard straight from the app.

As for Places/Hotpot, you can now add keywords of your own choosing for places when you rate them, like food, music or entertainment. Google calls these "aspects," but hey, it's a search company, and these things are bound to count for something (so let's call them what they are). Sarcasm aside, adding little descriptive keywords for places makes perfect sense, and may actually end up being the most useful thing to come out of this update -- if only more people used Places. I mean Hotpot.

The only potentially bad thing here is that the option to check in at home is a public act. Very public, in fact. When you go to add a "home" location in Latitude, you're warned right up front that the address is going to be visible to anybody who can see your check-ins (so buyer beware). You do have to love Google for at least including the warning, though.
The update's live now and available in the Android Market. Tags: android, apps, cellphones, check-in, google, maps, mobile, search, utilities