Inside Scoop: Google goes after Yelp and Foursquare in Maps update

-Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Inside Scoop. I'm CNET's Kara Tsuboi joined by senior writer Seth Rosenblatt. And Seth, today we are talking all about the newly updated Google Mapping App for Android and soon iOS. -Yes. Absolutely. -So it comes out today for Android users, is that correct? -Yes. Android users who have Jellybean 4.1 will be able to begin getting the app from the Google Play Store. -What would you say is the biggest, most noticeable difference between this version and previous? -Oh, boy. There's a lot of differences. There's a new look that they announced at Google I/O. There's also some new features that they also announced back in May. Most interestingly, the app is sort of going after Foursquare and Yelp with some of these new features. -Interesting. How is that gonna work like the Yelp part for example? -The Yelp part is really cool. You tap on a restaurant or a bar and the Sage review shows up. You get the-- you can see the Sage score. You can see the Sage review, other reader's reviews and then you can add your own score and your review directly from Google Maps, it's quite cool. -And what about the Foursquare portion. How does that work? -That's also a very interesting. There's a new explore feature in Google Maps, so when you tap on a location you can go through restaurants, bars, hotels, points of interest-- it's really kinda neat and you can do it all without having to type anything into your phone. You can just tap and go. -Now, what about for those of us users who just want a good mapping app that doesn't steer me in the wrong direction? Does this beef up those features or, you know, give me better traffic data, things like that. -Absolutely. Although Google just bought Waze, which is known for its Cloud source maps. -All right. -None of those features have filtered into this version yet. -Okay. -But what we do have in this version is a real time traffic rerouting option. So if you're-- it detects a traffic jam up ahead, it'll notify you that there's a jam and then offer an automatic reroute. You tap the phone once that gives you a new way to go. -I like that. That sounds very useful. -It's interesting. -That's great. Yeah, where do you think Google is really going with this? Obviously, you know, mapping is a huge space right now, just trying to stake more of claim against, you know, Apple's own proprietary maps if everyone else in the space. -You know, I don't know especially with the buy of Waze. I don't know that Google's really feeling any pressure from any competition. Certainly, they want to stay on top of the heat and some of the features that they've included such as a new feature where you can shake the phone and it will automatically pop up the feedback option where you can let the Google Maps know that there's a bad photo that there's an inaccurate placement of something or an error and even a transportation schedule. That makes it, you know, one of the more unique mapping apps out there. -I would definitely use that feature. -No kidding. -I hate it when I find a one-way street that's gone the other way. -Sure. Or when they get the [unk] times in San Francisco is the worst. -Absolutely. All right, so starting today, Android users can update their app and then iOS users-- rolling out soon. They don't know when exactly but it should be. I would be surprised if it was less than-- if they didn't have it within a few weeks. -Great. Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt. I'm Kara Tsuboi. Thanks for watching the Inside Scoop.