Pegman in the New Google Maps

Pegman is back in Google Maps. When Google unveiled the new desktop interface for Google Maps, the cute Street View guide was missing.

"To discover a world of imagery at your fingertips, look no further than Pegman – your guide through Street View – who you can find in the lower right corner of the screen. Click on Pegman, and areas with Street View imagery will light up in blue. For a street-level preview, hover over any highlighted road, then click to dive into that location. As you zoom in, you'll also see blue circles indicating where you can find user-uploaded photos, including Photo Spheres – immersive, 360º panoramas taken from land, air, and sea. Click on a yellow circle to see inside restaurants, museums, and more," informs Google.

I don't see Pegman yet, but it will roll out in the next few days or weeks. I'm sure that the yellow icon will be easy to spot once the new feature is enabled by Google.

The new Google Maps added a few other useful features: you can now preview directions by clicking "preview steps" and explore 3D bird's-eye view imagery in Earth Tours. "Wherever you see the Earth Tour icon, you can click, sit back, and get a virtual tour from a soaring angle. Dive into Boston or circle the Alps." There's also the new Google app launcher that replaces the black bar and some new icons for settings and help that are placed at the bottom of the page, next to the "Explore" box.

The features are available in the new Google Maps for desktop and Google says that "more of you will begin to see the new Maps experience," which probably means that the new Maps will start to replace the classic Google Maps. I'm sure that the classic interface will still be available for a while, at least until Google adds the missing features and improves the features that require WebGL.

{ via Google Lat Long. }