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New features have been enabled on Google Maps, allowing users to try out a couple of different ways to zoom in on a map.

Google software engineer Liz Xu posted an update about Google Maps. The added features can be used online or through the Maps API v2.

Xu described the features, double-click to zoom and continuous zoom, in the blog post:

Double-click to zoom. Instead of double-clicking to recenter the map, we now support left double-clicking to recenter and zoom in one level, and right double-clicking to zoom out one level. This can be enabled or disabled by calling enableDoubleClickZoom() or disableDoubleClickZoom() from a GMap2 instance. By default, double-click to zoom is disabled for API sites, since navigation in some API applications relies on the old behavior.

Continuous zoom. For users of Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows, we provide a smooth, continuous zoom animation when you zoom in one level. We turn off overlays during the zoom animation, so this may not be suitable for all API sites. To enable or disable continuous zoom, call enableContinuousZoom() or disableContinuousZoom() from a GMap2 instance. By default, continuous zoom is off.
The features work as advertised in both browsers listed. We will be interested in seeing if Google Maps will eventually match the Bird's Eye view available for many cities in Microsoft's Local Live mapping site. Or perhaps even improve upon it.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.