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Google updates Maps API to improve in-app map views

Trulia, Expedia Hotels, and FlightTrack are among those taking advantage of the update.

Casey Newton Former Senior Writer
Casey Newton writes about Google for CNET, which he joined in 2012 after covering technology for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is really quite tall.
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Users can search for housing in 3D using the updated Maps API in the Trulia app.
Users can search for housing in 3D using the updated Maps API in the Trulia app. Google

Google updated its Maps API today, giving developers a handful of new features to improve the way Google Maps are displayed inside their apps.

The company wrote in a blog post:

We've incorporated many of the highly requested features developers want, such as:

• More dynamic and flexible UI designs for large screen Android devices, such as tablets, using Android Fragments
• Adding more Google Maps layers in their apps including satellite, hybrid, terrain, traffic and now indoor maps for many major airports and shopping centers
• The ability to create markers and info windows with less code.

More than 800,000 sites around the world use Google Maps, the company said. To see the new API in action, check out upcoming versions of apps from Trulia, Expedia Hotels, and FlightTrack.

Updated 1:26 p.m. PT A Google spokesperson writes to say that the Trulia and Expedia apps have not yet been updated with the new API. An update to Trulia is expected tomorrow, and Expedia is coming "in a few weeks."

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