• Mashable, Wednesday, June 9, 2010 1:59 PM

Steadily growing its global reach, Google Maps Navigation for Android devices -- a free turn-by-turn navigation system based on Google Maps -- is now available in Canada and most of mainland Europe. According to Mashable, the service was only recently extended to the UK and Ireland. Now, in addition to Canada, newly supported countries include France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.

Still free for owners of Android devices, Google Maps Navigation also supports voice commands and voice search, street view, traffic warnings, as well as step-by-step directions. Regarding Voice Search, Google said: "Our goal is to bring Google Search by voice to speakers of all languages ... We follow a rigorous process to add each new language or dialect ... Working directly with native speakers in each country, we spend weeks collecting spoken utterances to create the specific models which power the service." Along with Android devices, Voice Search works on the iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia S60 devices.

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