Google adds weather forecast to Maps

Internet search giant Google is providing current weather information and cloud data from across the world on its Google Maps application, a move that will hopefully make travel and activity planning easier. "We're adding a weather layer on Google Maps that displays current temperatures and conditions around the globe," Google User Experience Designer Jonah Jones said in a blog post yesterday. The company is providing this facility through an arrangement with weather.com and the US Naval Research Laboratory. The information about weather is visible through a widget in the upper right corner of Google Maps. Clicking on the weather icon for a particular city opens a window with data like current humidity and wind conditions, as well as a forecast for the next four days. In addition, users can also click on the left-hand panel to change the units for measurement of wind speed and temperature and enable or disable the viewing of clouds when zoomed out from the map. Google said that the weather data used by Google Maps comes from weather.com, while information on cloud coverage is provided by the Naval Research Laboratory.