Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bike, air (in beta) and public transportation. As of 2020[update], Google Maps was being used by over one billion people every month around the world.[1]
Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application. After additional acquisitions of a geospatial data visualization company and a real-time traffic analyzer, Google Maps was launched in February 2005.[2] The service's front end utilizes JavaScript, XML, and Ajax. Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites,[3] and offers a locator for businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Map Maker allowed users to collaboratively expand and update the service's mapping worldwide but was discontinued from March 2017. However, crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps were not discontinued as the company announced those features would be transferred to the Google Local Guides program,[4] although users that are not Local Guides can still contribute.
Google Maps' satellite view is a "top-down" or bird's-eye view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other imagery is from satellites.[5] Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis, according to a 2011 report.[6] Google Maps previously used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles.[7] In August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe. It is still possible to switch back to the 2D map in the settings.
Google Maps for mobile devices were first released in 2006; the latest versions feature GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. By 2013, it was found to be the world's most popular smartphone app, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it.[8] In 2017, the app was reported to have two billion users on Android, along with several other Google services including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Google Play.
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^Anderson, Frank (October 18, 2011). "How Often is Google Maps and Google Earth Updated?". TechnicaMix. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
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Google Street View is a technology featured in GoogleMaps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the...
The GoogleMaps pin is the inverted-drop-shaped icon that marks locations in GoogleMaps. The pin is protected under a U.S. design patent as "teardrop-shaped...
increase map quality. Changes to GoogleMap Maker were intended to appear on GoogleMaps only after sufficient review by Google moderators. GoogleMap Maker...
GoogleMaps Navigation is a mobile application developed by Google for the Android and iOS operating systems that later integrated into the Google Maps...
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposing...
on the GoogleMaps webpage or mobile app. On Mario Day (March 10) 2018, Google and Nintendo had partnered up to bring Mario into GoogleMaps mobile app...
buildings and structures. First released in 2012, Apple Maps replaced GoogleMaps as the default map system on Apple devices. At launch, it drew criticism...
Google offers Gmail for email, Google Calendar for time-management and scheduling, GoogleMaps for mapping, navigation and satellite imagery, Google Drive...
censorship of certain sites was subsequently removed. For example, when GoogleMaps and Google Earth were launched, images of the White House and United States...
other tools and services including Google News, Google Shopping, GoogleMaps, Google Custom Search, Google Earth, Google Docs, Picasa (discontinued), Panoramio...
Since the introduction of the service, products from Google, such as GOOG-411, GoogleMaps and Google Mobile App, have been developed to use speech recognition...
earliest maps known are of the heavens, geographic maps of territory have a very long tradition and exist from ancient times. The word "map" comes from...
application on Google's ChromeOS. The app allows users to create and edit flowcharts, organisational charts, website wireframes, mind maps, concept maps, and other...
Retrieved October 27, 2018. Mix (October 10, 2019). "Google is rolling out dark mode for Gmail and Maps". The Next Web. Archived from the original on October...
downgraded to Google Merchant Center. If Google found user-added content relevant, submitted content appeared on its shopping search engine, GoogleMaps or even...
directions and local business search. Google My Maps – a social custom map making tool based on GoogleMaps. Google Earth – virtual 3D globe that uses satellite...
company launched Google News in 2002, Gmail in 2004, GoogleMaps in 2005, Google Chrome in 2008, and the social network known as Google+ in 2011 (which...
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats...
Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language...
Google Lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google, designed to bring up relevant information related to objects it identifies using visual...
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple...
the storm. Google's official blog post in April revealed that the imagery was still available in KML format on Google Earth or GoogleMaps. In March 2008...
Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in...
and highways on the map changes color. The satellite mode of Yandex Maps is not as detailed as GoogleMaps. It has detailed maps only of Russia, Belarus...
GoogleMaps Road Trip was a live-streaming documentary produced by Marc Horowitz and Peter Baldes between August 10 and August 18, 2009. The event represented...
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