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Google just announced a major update to Google Maps in the United States. The new version not only includes better maps based on data from government organizations like the Forest Service and the US Geological Survey, but it also allows users to easily report problems with a map. In addition, Google Maps now features better maps for parks and water bodies, as well as college campuses. Trails and paths now also appear on the maps and thanks to this, Google plans to add biking directions to its routing feature in the near future.

Soon, you may start seeing company logos dotting the landscape on Google Maps. While Google has experimented with different types of ads in Google Maps on and off over the years, it now looks like Google is going to make another push to monetize Google Maps. While the details about this project are still quite hazy, it seems like Google plans to launch this program in at least the US and Australia in the next few weeks.

Looking for a new company to get excited about? Look no further than mobile mapping startup, Micello. Their new mapping solution is basically "Google Maps for the indoors." What that means is that instead of focusing on streets and terrain, they're mapping the insides of buildings like shopping malls, convention centers, theme parks, college campuses, and more. And because Micello is a mobile solution, you not only see what's where, you can see where you are, too.

Google today announced that Google Maps can now display live traffic data for more roads. Until now, Google only showed data from major highways. That data came directly from local highway authorities, but now, Google will also tap into data it receives from GPS-enabled phones that use Google Maps with the My Location feature. As users move around a city, Google can see how well traffic is flowing along any road and will update its live traffic data accordingly.

Yesterday, Google announced that it was expanding its real estate listings on Google Maps. In an interview with The Age, Andrew Foster, a Google product manager, explained that Google was rededicating itself to this market because it found that a growing number of people are using the Internet to search for a new home. Currently, according to data from Hitwise, Google Maps is only a very small player in the online real estate market and it only sends about 2% of its traffic to real estate web sites. The current market leaders are Realtor.com, Zillow, and Yahoo Real Estate.

On the Lat Long Blog, Google has announced a new Maps feature in the right-click menu for any point on a map.

Now, when a user clicks on "What's here?" Google will return as specific a result as possible, be that an address, a "natural entity," or a place name. When combined with the "At this address" feature, "What's here?" can even be used to return a full list of businesses located at a given address. Hypothetically, that is. The list of conditions for this feature functioning as laid out in the announcement seems to be a bit long and convoluted.

Not too long ago, for most of us, MapQuest was the default online mapping service. Even today, after a number of changes to its site, MapQuest is still one of the most popular places to get maps and directions online, even though other services like Google Maps or Microsoft's Bing Maps (formerly known as Live Maps) offer more features.

Today, MapQuest released its first iPhone app, MapQuest 4 Mobile (iTunes link), and after testing it for a while, it quickly became clear that MapQuest's app is a worthy challenger for the iPhone's built-in mapping application, which is based on Google Maps.

Street View in Google Maps is a somewhat controversial feature, but there is no denying that it is quite an interesting product. Until now, however, navigation along streets was a bit difficult, but Google just introduced a new, smarter way to navigate Street View's panoramas. Instead of having to click from one arrow to the next, you can now simply double-click anywhere in an image and Google will take you to this point. In addition, Street View now also recognizes the facades of buildings and will show a rectangle when you mouse over a house. Thanks to this, you can now also easily zoom in to any spot in an image by just double-clicking.

Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, showed both a new mobile version of Gmail running on the iPhone and HTC Magic today, as well as a new mobile version of Google Maps running on the Palm Pre. The new mobile Gmail app, which Gundotra demoed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, makes extensive use of new features that are only available in HTML5. Among these new Gmail features were offline access, even in the browser, as well as support for labels.

MapQuest was once the unquestioned leader among online mapping services. And while others like Google Maps or Microsoft's Live Search Maps offer a more modern interface and far more features than MapQuest, the latest data from Hitwise shows that MapQuest still commands almost 40% of the market. Even on the fast-moving Internet, old habits clearly only die very slowly.