Google Maps tops 150m mobile users and moves to 'contextual discovery'

VP Marissa Mayer tells SXSW about Google's plans for mobile location services.
Google Maps has 150 million mobile users now, up from 100 million last August. That's according to Google VP Marissa Mayer, who spoke at the SXSW conference on Friday.
What's more, 40% of Google Maps usage is now mobile, said Mayer, who added that users of the Google Maps Navigation Android app are driving 12 biillion miles a year while using that app.
According to TechCrunch, Mayer also said Google's new Hotpot local recommendations service has now gathered more than three million ratings from users.
She also reiterated that Google is turning its attention to the area of contextual discovery, described by Mayer as "taking your location and a little context", aided by visual search apps like Google Goggles.
It's a theme she also addressed at the LeWeb conference in December, saying then that for mobile, contextual discovery is about "where are you in the physical world, what were you just doing... we can potentially figure out what the next piece of useful information is".