Google Maps has been performing solid, mostly thankless service for more than eight years now, and last week its most significant update yet was leaked. It's that time of year, so we naturally assumed that we'd be hearing more about it at today's Google I/O keynote, but someone in Mountain View must have been a little quick on the trigger. Droid Life spotted a signup page for the revamped web interface and managed to grab a few screenshots before it was hastily shoved back in the digital closet.

Between this and a string of small maintenance updates to Google Maps for Android (not to mention a name change - the Play Store entry is just "Maps" now) we think there's a pretty good chance that the Google Maps app will also get a major overhaul in the very near future. Later today would be the obvious choice, though Google may choose to focus on the web interface during I/O. New features highlighted in this leak include a much-improved fullscreen interface, more integration with your Google Search history, integrated flight search, and more goodies moved over from Google Earth.

While most Android users would probably say that Google Maps is the best mapping and navigation app available, it's certainly gotten long in the tooth over the last couple of years. Google has been adding features left and right, and the interface has suffered for it, to say nothing of the fact that Navigation hasn't had a significant visual update in some time. (Even the iOS version looks better.) One of our writers tried to document every interface screen in the app last week and gave up after thirty screens, with about a half-dozen conflicting UI standards. Here's hoping that the imminent web refresh will inspire Google to trim the fat in the Android app.

By: Docmemory
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