Google links to maps?

I just noticed a specific query that returns a link to maps as a result. Something new and beta still apparently. Some details on what I found and some questions that I hope someone would answer.

Every now and then I query Google with my own name (and other search terms that people have used to come to our site). Tonight Google.fi gave me some very interesting results. Before the first search result I got a link to Michelin’s and Map24’s map services with the search term ramin. Below is a screen shot of what I got as a result.

Google map option on google.fi

Trying the same search through Google.com didn’t yield a map link. And, in fact, the order of the search results was quite different as well. I’d been wondering how Finnish pages tended to be ranked quite high in my search results recently. Apparently Google’s localized sites take the language used into account when calculating the page rank. At least in Google.fi my homepage is ranked second, whereas in Google.com it doesn’t fit in the first ten.

But ramin is the only search term that I tried that resulted in the map link. Any other well known cities or towns didn’t give me such results. Is there anybody out there who knows how this map technology works and how page rank differs depending on the localized version of Google that is being used. At least Google’s own basic documentation doesn’t lead any insight into these two issues.

P.S. There is a Ramin is Eastern Germany near the Polish border and one in Northern Italy as well. I never new that. And Google just gave us two more places that we need to visit sometime…

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