Google Maps now has an Australian domain: maps.google.com.au. It’s the same site as maps.google.com, except it starts with the satellite view of Australia & you don’t need to put Australia in the search query when looking up Australian addresses. For example, if I was searching for Penrith in New South Wales, in Google Maps Australia I just have to search for Penrith, where as the regular Google Maps doesn’t find it, unless I add NSW Australia.

One other thing I noticed, while Google Maps is a fully fledged graduate of the Labs, Google Maps Australia is still in beta:

I’m hoping that this means, with the release of this domain, that business directory listings like what they have for the US & the UK aren’t too far off.

I’ve written up an open search plugin (a.k.a. Firefox search engine), which you can grab from the Mycroft site.

[via Google Maps Mania]