3. Google Maps, Continued

You can’t pick a contact as part of a route; you have to look them up first, and then use them for directions. Google Maps will only find contacts that have both an address and a phone number or email address - if you only have an address, the contact simply won’t show up in the list, though you can go into your address book on Windows Mobile and map the address from there. Live Search had no problem picking up contacts with or without phone numbers; not being able to find people who don’t have an email address or phone number is ludicrous, as too many addresses can’t be found even when you have full address details, and it takes more clicks to get directions to or from an address in Google Maps than in Live Search.

Using the GPS isn’t as simple either; you can track your current location or use it in directions, but if you’re tracking your location you can’t then load a map for anywhere else without turning the GPS tracking off. In Live Search you can explore other locations and then jump back quickly. Don’t accidentally hit 0 in a list of results, though: it turns on the GPS. Another irritant is that you have to click "OK" every time you start Google Maps. It’s one more click between you and what you’re looking for, and if you’re searching on your phone you’re probably in a hurry.

Google Maps is available at www.google.com/gmm for Windows Mobile, Palm OS and BlackBerry (you get directed to the right version automatically) but the interfaces and features are slightly different; you can’t look up contacts on the BlackBerry, for example. Some versions of the application offer common searches (gasoline, pizza, flowers, airport, cafe, movies, hotel); others let you save a location as a favorite. The Java versions tend to be slower, and you get similar download and rendering speeds from Google Maps on a 3G connection as you do from Live Search on GPRS.