GMap update for Android brings photo upload, my location and more

Google has released a long due update for its popular Google maps app for Android. This update brings a host of new features like support for uploading photos for a place and my Places feature.

Uploading photo support

This feature will enable you to contribute photo of a particular place from your album to the Google Map app, which will tag it along with the place. This can help new visitors to know about how the place looks by viewing those pictures. If your picture is really good, it might even become the profile picture for that place – or so Google promises. You can sync Picasa with the GMap through a new folder called “Photos for Google Maps”.

My Places

This feature is already available in the desktop version. My Places feature allows you to star and favoritize places, so that you can easily view and manage them later. You can access My Places by pressing your phone’s menu button while in Google Maps.

Other features

There is also “descriptive terms for mobile” that lets you look at a few basic details about the places you are searching without actually going inside that particular link. For example, search for a particular restaurant might bring up the recommended dishes and other users’ ratings among other details.

If the restaurant you are looking for does not come up in search, and turns out it is not listed – there is a button called “Add Place” with which you can quickly add that place. This is another cool feature in the update.

Get the update from Android Marketplace here. Watch the video below to help emphasize the decision to download the already free app.