2009 saw the rise of Nokia’s Ovi services, which in turn saw the consolidation of all its services under one roof — The Ovi Store. And while Nokia Maps maybe no more, this is not such a bad thing, as in its place is the upgraded, and infinitely better, Ovi Maps. Read on after the jump to find out what Ovi Maps is all about and why it has become such an indispensable service to Nokia users’ the world over.

Besides the re-branding of Nokia’s Maps service, there have been, as we said, some major amendments in both the services provided and the technology used within the application itself. For starters, Ovi Maps now includes weather information, premium POIs and safety camera information.

In addition, the number of countries that can access its traffic data has been vastly expanded, as has the overall zooming and panning performance of the in-map controls. Consequently, a number of bugs that were present in Nokia Maps have also been permanently erased and the overall application is inherently more stable.

One of the key changes we noticed whilst using Ovi Maps (http://noknok.tv/2009/11/16/skyhook-wireless-comes-to-nokia/) was that the search function is a lot more useful and user intuitive – there’s greater differentiation between places and addresses, as well as post codes and listed buildings. Overall, the UI has received quite an overhaul, which has made Ovi Maps a far more intuitive and useful application.

As we said, the underlying map has been vastly improved and supports 2D and 3D map modes, as well as satellite imagery and terrain mapping, which is always handy if you’re off roading. Overall, the in-application experience has been dramatically improved, and we found it to be much snappier and responsive, when compared to Nokia Maps.

However, one of the key new features is Sync: Basically, you can save favourite places, routes, and addresses which can be saved to your mobile and sent to your PC, and vice-versa. In addition, you can now search a route before leaving the house on Ovi Web and then send that route over to your Ovi Maps function on your mobile device.

Another welcome addition to Ovi Maps is Good Things, which is essentially a user-generated POI, where users can mark, map, and leave comments about places they think are Good Things – these “good things” can also be shared on social networking site as well via a unique URL.

Additional little tweaks to the application, such as pedestrian routes are perfect for when your on foot, ensuring that you always a pavement beneath your feet and never end up walking against traffic on a dual carriage way on route to that party or event.

Also, the incorporation of weather information is a welcome addition, as are the POIs, which can be found when you select EXPLORE in a certain area.

Overall, Ovi Maps is a greatly improved version of Nokia Maps that takes all the right elements of the previous service and adds about a million other useful tools, as well as making the overall functionality of the app a lot smoother and snappier. In short, Ovi Maps is the only navigation tool you’ll need – no matter how hard the place is you’re trying to find!