Google adds free turn by turn directions

In Google's quest to make consumers' lives easier, it's tackling the number one requested feature for its Google Mobile Maps product: turn-by-turn directions.

The search leader is unveiling a free updated maps app called Google Maps Navigation for its upcoming Android 2.0 operating system. The beta program will not only provide an unprecedented amount of free navigation information for users, it might just signal the end to dedicated personal navigation devices and subscription navigation services on cell phones.

"It was clear from user demand the next natural step was to offer turn-by-turn directions," said Vic Gundotra, Google's vice president of engineering for mobile and developer. "That was what drove this product."

Google Maps Navigation starts with turn-by-turn directions, allowing users to not just plot a course as they have with previous Google Maps apps, but they can have the program speak to them as they progress toward their destination. This alone is a big win for consumers because it takes a feature -- which normally costs either $10 bucks a month on cell phones or a couple hundred dollars for standalone navigation devices -- and makes it free.

But Google is shooting to make personal navigation even more intelligent by creating better connections to search and web information and leveraging Google's existing desktop maps application. The result is a product that blows past the very small fraction of navigation devices that connect to the Internet.