Maps have become a surprisingly important part of the world of modern technology. Of course, we’re not referring here to those gigantic maps that you had to spend 20 minutes unfolding. Rather, we’re talking about electronic maps services such as those offered by Bing, Google, and others. Google Maps is especially popular, and although we can blame at least part of that on the fact that all Android systems come with Maps pre-loaded, the long list of useful features doesn’t hurt either.

That feature list just expanded again with the release of Android Maps 5.5. This new version adds closer integration to two other Google services, Google Places and Google Latitude, while expanding on the public transit resources for users. Google Places is a local business information and rating community site while Latitude is a geo-location service much like 4Square.

All the new features can be found on the “place” screen of Google Maps. Whenever you’ve searched for a business that’s registered with Google (via Maps or Places) you’ll now see a “check-in” option (which automatically gets directed to Google Latitude), a rating option (which automatically gets directed to Places), and a list of nearby public transportation options. The improved public transit data includes route numbers that come nearby, the approximate schedule for those nearby routes, and more, but may not be available in all cities at this time; even some of the 440 cities already covered by Google Maps’ for transit data will not yet have access to these resources.

Those who visit the Android market semi-regularly may already have this new version on their phone. Otherwise, you can access the Android Market, push the menu button, go to “My Apps,” select Google Maps, and push the “Update” button to get access to the new features.