British Android users awoke this morning to find a slightly belated Easter egg from Google lying in their Google Maps. If you have Android 1.6 or 2.1 coupled with Google Maps 4.1.0 or 4.1.1 you should now be able to get your free turn-by-turn navigation on.

Everyone in the aforementioned section of the Venn diagram gets the turn-by-turn navigation with voice directions, but it would appear that only the Nexus One owners get the added bonus of being able to use speech recognition in Maps to say “navigate to” and the like.

So if you already have Maps installed you should just be able to pop it open and start zigging and zagging to the soothing tones of your Android navigator, if not get thee to the Market or hit the QR code above.

Unfortunately due to the ash cloud none of the Android and Me staff were able to fly over there and verify the functioning of the update in Britain so sound off in comments if you notice anything wonky going on or if you just want to give a little hip hurray for free navigation that’s cool too.

If you were thinking about buying a shiny new GPS unit for Christmas, save your money and get the service for free on your phone.

Highlights of the service include:

• Search in plain English (watch video). No need to know the address. You can type a business name or even a kind of a business, just like you would on Google.
• Search by voice (watch video). Speak your destination instead of typing (English only): “Navigate to the de Young Museum in San Francisco”.
• Traffic view (watch video). An on-screen indicator glows green, yellow, or red based on the current traffic conditions along your route. A single touch toggles a traffic view which shows the traffic ahead of you.
• Search along route (watch video). Search for any kind of business along your route, or turn on popular layers such as gas stations, restaurants, or parking.
• Satellite view (watch video). View your route overlaid on 3D satellite views with Google’s high-resolution aerial imagery.
• Street View (watch video). Visualize turns overlaid on Google’s Street View imagery. Navigation automatically switches to Street View as you approach your destination.
• Car dock mode (watch video). For certain devices, placing your phone in a car dock activates a special mode that makes it easy to use your device at arm’s length.

I really hope G1 owners get Android 2.0 now.