Google Maps, the web mapping service application and technology provided by the Mountain View search engine giant, is a great tool to use when you need to get directions and locate certain destinations. And if you have Google Maps on your Android-powered smartphone it locating destinations is as easy as speaking out an address, a business, or any other location you need to find. You can even shout out to all your peeps when you are in an interesting location (details here).

But what if you don’t know what interesting locations are around you? What if you want to know what’s out there? For those of you interested in discovering new locations, there is a new feature in Google Maps called “What’s here?” As the name so adequately points out, you need just go to a certain location on Google Maps, click the “What’s here?” link from the context menu and get plenty of info about the geographical location.

“On Google Maps, we try to label important places directly on the map tiles. But sometimes, it seems more helpful to just click on a point and ask "What's here?". Now you can do exactly that with an option we've added under the right-click menu. When you click on "What's here?", we give you the most relevant result representing that location, whether it's a specific address, a natural entity, or a place name,” explained Product Manager Fernando Delgado and Software Engineer Diana Stroe.

Keep in mind that “What’s here?” is directly related to the zoom level in Google Maps’ attempt to give “you the most appropriate geographical entity at that point.” What this means is that when you are really zoomed in you can get the full address of a point for example, or a list of businesses from that point. Alternatively when you are really zoomed out you will get info related to that whole area.