John Hanke, Director of Google Maps & Earth is quoted, saying, “We’re pleased to be partnering with Magellan to provide users with detailed, relevant local information while on the road. Magellan devices are powerful, interactive tools for navigation and discovery that serve as a cutting-edge platform for Google’s robust local search capabilities.”

Magellan’s Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS is expected to be available in March, 2008 at around $1299.

At the SMX Local & Mobile conference back in October, the CTO for Google Earth & Google Maps, Michael Jones, stated that in order to get new applications embedded in automobile consoles, it required about ten years of advanced planning due to the car industry’s very lengthy development cycle. This new deal between Google and Magellan would indicate that Google has found at least one way to bypass that lengthy planning cycle and the car industry itself in order to get search integrated closer with drivers.

Of course, Google Maps has already integrated closely with BMWs in Europe and gas station pumps in America.

Yellow pages providers and other mapping services have been pushing to mash up their content with GPS service providers for a while now. One big kid on the block, OnStar, partnered with MapQuest for these types of services back in June of 2007, for instance.

One important question that this news release doesn’t mention is how the Magellan devices are necessarily sending users’ geolocation information to Google in order for them to provide up the local search results. Since the Magellan service involves a subscription, one wonders whether the info Magellan sends to Google is restricted to only the geolocation associated with a generic ID number, or whether more personally-identifiable information is included.

“Now it is drafting specifications for phones that can display all of Google’s mobile applications at their best, and it is developing new software to run on them. The company is conducting much of the development work at a facility in Boston, and is working on a sophisticated new Web browser for cellphones, people familiar with the plans say.”

Could this be what they’ll have that browser hacker working upon?

Yesterday, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch reminded us yesterday that Google has also invested in the Maxthon Browser not long ago, so there’s even more indication that Google could still intend to launch their own general web browser as well. The Maxthon Browser is apparently used particularly in China.

In any case, if the WSJ reporters’ sources are correct, we now have confirmation that Google is indeed working upon writing their own browser software.

Due to my interests in local search, I’m further fascinated that Google’s plans for the mobile phone specify that it should include GPS capability:

“The specifications Google has laid out for devices suggest that manufacturers include cameras for photo and video, and built-in Wi-Fi technology to access the Web at hot spots such as airports, coffee shops and hotels. It also is recommending that the phones be designed to work on carriers’ fastest networks, known as 3G, to ensure that Web pages can be downloaded quickly. Google suggests the phones could include Global Positioning System technology that identifies where people are.” 

I recently wrote an article on Geolocation, and it’s clear to me that Google’s inclusion of GPS in these devices is so that they can target locally-oriented ads and content directly to the users. GPS-enabled devices would have the highest degree of geolocational accuracy of any of the methods for associating real-world locations with the virtual-world internet users.