Truck and Barter

Google continues apace in its apparent attempt to improve on just about every aspect of the web.

New-to-me are Google Maps. While I find the initial search page a bit clunky (I'd prefer to have the Local Search fields open on the first page rather than be a tab choice and the example searches are more confusing than clarifying to me, but this is still Beta Testing), the functionality more than makes up for the roughness around the edges.

Perhaps my favorite feature is the combination of web search results with location searches. That is, type in a place and street number, and choose from the "pins" on the displayed map to see the name of the destination, search results with the "N more" option, and the choice to quickly move to a driving directions interface that is nicely intergated right into the "popups" that appear. Plus, the draggable map is a dramatic improvement over the "click the sides of the map to scroll" interface of MapQuest.