Google Maps for India got updated with much awaited free turn-by-turn voice instructions and traffic data features. Android users can download the updated Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for free and receive navigation and live traffic information. The live traffic data is available for major cities and comes from a variety of sources, including government agencies, private data providers, and users of Google Maps who send anonymous traffic data utilizing the crowdsourcing feature.

While navigation feature is only available to Android users now, live traffic data is accessible on desktop as well as iOS Google Maps application.

Google Earth is one of the successful projects from the company, and unlike numerous other Google Products is being continuously developed and upgraded with new features. After, textured 3D buildings Google Earth is soon going to offer 3D models of entire metropolitan areas on mobile devices.

Acknowledging the success to 45-degree aerial imagery, new rendering and computer vision techniques, Google says - creating 3D cityscapes, complete with buildings, terrain and landscaping is now easier and automated then earlier. Google plans to offer 3D coverage for metropolitan areas with a combined population of 300 million people by the end of this year. A video demonstration of new 3D cityscapes is posted after the jump.

Google Maps for android has received an major update pushing the latest version to 6.0, the major version upgrade introduces an all new "indoor mapping" and positioning feature which works inside stores, malls, and airports getting users their way around with ease.

Using this new feature users will now be able to see where everything is located inside a building, and even switch between floors. The indoor mapping feature is not available for all locations yet and initially covers only large retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan.

Google Maps For Android 5.0 Vs 6.0

Video demo and download links after the jump.

Just days after an update to Android Market users can now enjoy another new update as Google Mobile Maps 5 featuring cool new additions like 3D maps, offline maps and rerouting is live in Google Android Market. A detailed list of new features and improvements with high-quality screenshot is available after the jump.

Ongoing Australian forest fire which is suspected to be a work of Jungle Jihad has already claimed more then 181 confirmed casualties till now, the engineers at Google Maps Australia have now created a Google Map mashup detailing and tracking the forest-fires in real-time, the mashup data is being updated in real-time using RSS feeds from Victoria's Country Fire Authority.

The FireMaps contain color-coded markups displaying the current severity status, clicking on the markup displays detailed information regarding the fire-site, the mashup also makes use of latest available satellite imagery from the Modis Rapid Response project at NASA/GSFC.

Geeks are always one step ahead and loves to do things in their own unique way, Michael Weiss-Malik a Google employee decided to UPGRADE his marriage proposal to next version proposing it the "Marriage Proposal 2.0" style, he proposed from inside a Google Street View panorama by standing with a marriage proposal poster at the time when Google's street view scanning car drove by.

RadiusIM is a new proximity based IM service with more then 100,000 registered users now, RadiusIM allows users to log in and chat via their Yahoo, AIM, Microsoft or GTalk credentials, while online you will be shown your location on map and other RadiusIM users near your location, this way you can get hooked up with new friends near your area, a very nice way to get a new date.

This is yet another example of how useful Google Maps can be, "GMaps Flight Tracker" is a Google Map mashup for tracking inbound flights to land at Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, JFK New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle airports, the flight progress is updated every 40 seconds.

Satellite Alignment Calculator 2.0 is a very nifty meshup making use of Google Maps to pinpoint the exact direction you need to align your satellite receiver in order to get it working, its very easy to use just choose your satellite, enter your location and press go. Zoom to maximum and a blue line will show the direction in which you need to point the dish for that particular Satellite.