Google is taking over the world

First a great search engine, then Gmail, now maps. Google is taking over the information superhighway, in a good way.

In a previous post I talked about some software called Keyhole that overlays maps with satellite images and other information, letting you pan and zoom in real time and even get cool 3D views. Well, Google bought Keyhole some time back, and now I notice that Google has a beta test of Google Maps. I've played with it for all of about 3 minutes and already I like it better than Mapquest and Yahoo Maps. It's real-time pannable, so you don't need to click back and forth to see different parts of the map, instead just drag it. And you don't need to type complete addresses--you don't even need addresses at all! You can search for "good pizza in st. louis" and (if such a thing existed) you'd get a map of St. Louis with the good pizza places highlighted. Then you can click the location and get driving directions to or from that place. Click a step in the directions to see a close-up of the intersection. You can get a satellite view with one click as well. Click the final location to find web pages about the restaurant. Yes, this will be the new way I find myself when I get lost.