Geocoding for Google Maps in Australia & New Zealand

Google Maps keeps on impressing.

Today they've released geocoding support for Australia and New Zealand. The satellite imagery has been there a while, and earlier this year they added street maps, so now with geocoding it's actually useful to people living there.

Of course, the Google Maps API now supports geocoding, so expect to see a bunch of new maps mashups coming out of Aus and NZ in the coming weeks as people can use street addresses rather than having to look things up themselves.

Here's an example of where I used to live in Australia -- note no lat/long included!

The only thing missing now is directions and businesses, I predict they won't be long in coming.

Google News Archive Search

Google has launched a news archive search facility.

It features 200 years of archival data from the New York Times and the UK's Guardian, but includes most of the sources available from 'live' Google News.

It's a really useful service that lets you view articles on timelines to get a real sense for the flow and context of world news, giving current news articles an instant sense of history.

This will be a boon for schools, researchers, and anyone interested in knowing the how and why of things, provided in the context of their time.