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Wissam Dandan informed me on Google + that Google is testing horizontal maps on the web search results with gray map pins. The gray map pins have been spotted before, but I have not seen horizontal maps.
Here is a picture from Wissam's video:
As you can see, the map on the right is no longer vertical orientation but horizontal (longways). And the map pins below the ads in the middle are only red when you mouse over them, they are by default gray. Both are significant changes to the maps user interface.
Here is a video:
Forum discussion on Google +.
Comments:
Nyagoslav Zhekov
10/31/2011 02:07 pm
Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I sent a link to my article where there was a screenshot of the grey pins AND the horizontal map. I believe that was about a week ago :)
Barry Schwartz
10/31/2011 02:12 pm
About a week ago I was offline. Maybe it got caught by my spam filter or maybe I missed it? Sorry, I am human.
Nyagoslav Zhekov
10/31/2011 02:17 pm
No worries, Barry. Just mentioned. In fact you replied to my email the same day, so I believe it is the second possibility you mentioned.
Barry Schwartz
10/31/2011 02:18 pm
I apologize.
Peter Young
10/31/2011 05:10 pm
Hi Barry Noticed these back at the beginning of October - however testing at the time seemed very limited - http://www.holisticsearch.co.uk/2011/10/10/google-testing-page-layouts-again/