John Battelle's Searchblog

It does.
Suffice to click on the "Maps" link abve the search box and whammo! you are taken to the Google Map of Italy

I was under the impression that google maps would come up when searching for a city or street 'map'.
for eg. Italy Map (or even Canada Map) brings up pictures (think geography in school) but Rome Map (or Vancouver Map) brings up google maps.
Maybe not enough people link to Italy Map in google maps and it doesn't have enough PR ;)

It does. Suffice to click on the "Maps" link abve the search box and whammo! you are taken to the Google Map of Italy

Sure it does. But that's not what John meant. John expected something more automated than that, something where the correct link came up immediately and he didn't have to hunt around for more actions to perform. He wants the result to appear ranked first in the SERPs, not external to them.

That's right, JG. I am wondering why Google doesn't pick up the word "map" as a onebox indicator.

Let's see if they come back saying they're not a content / media company!

;P nmw

Actually, I can see the hum-diddly-um-dinger of a dilemma a search query like this poses for Google. On the one hand, if they don't get such a simple query "right" by linking directly to Google Maps for Italy, folks like John are dissatisfied because that is what they really want. On the other hand, if they do link to Google maps, directly in a SERP, you'll have folks like me, complaining about the unholy, Microsoft-like integration of services inside of the Google Operating System.. demanding the ability to swap out and/or plug in other services such as the Yahoo map for Italy, or the Map24 map for Italy, while simultaneously raving about Google's loss of "get users off of our site as soon as possible" principles.

Granted, it's probably more important to satisfy folks like you, John, rather than folks like myself. But I do appreciate the dilemma that they face, the inability through no fault of their own to come up with a globally optimal solution.

I am not sure if this is possible already, but what about keyword based searches. Ex: If John wanted to bring up a (google) map of Italy, he simply searches for "maps: italy" which can take him directly to the Google Maps search results.

Similarly, if i wanted to look at pictures of Mr. Obama, I would put in "Images: Obama" instread of Obama images in search.

This could enable power users like John to get what they want, and also make people like JG happy.

- NJ.

John's point is well-taken, I believe.

For queries involving city names plus the word "map", Google does display one of their maps one-boxes. Check out this map for Rome, for instance. But for countries, they do not. Why not? I doubt the usability is any different.

It's obvious that they use some query-types to invoke their maps one-boxes, and it just appears as though they've overlooked doing it for "country + maps" queries. It does seem like something of an oversight on their side, and it seems to create inconsistent functionality.

It's obvious that they use some query-types to invoke their maps one-boxes, and it just appears as though they've overlooked doing it for "country + maps" queries. It does seem like something of an oversight on their side, and it seems to create inconsistent functionality.

Interesting point, Silver Smith!

Perhaps they choose to show maps with cities and Google SERPs for countries in order to optimize the advertising revenue (i.e., to maximize profit) -- I guess it would be rather difficult to choose "local" results based on something so non-descriptive as "italy map" -- but why is there NOT A SINGLE ADVERTISEMENT for a search (any search?) on "maps"? (note that there IS 1 result for a search on "map": http://www.google.com/search?q=map ) Note, however, that I am in Germany -- and TomTom.COM is indeed (apparently) paying "landkarte"....

I love that Goggle does not toot their own horn that way. I am also a strong believer that people do not know how to search the Internet. A person can not give you an adequate answer if you only ask them questions using two words. why would you expect any better from a computer. Goggle is in "training" people to use complete thoughts when searching the Internet to achieve better search results. So next time don't ask Goggle why you are not receiving the right answer to your question instead ask why you are not asking the right question.