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Google Maps

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the mapping service. For the smartphone application, see Google Maps (application).

It has been suggested that Google Maps (application) be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2014.

Google Maps

Screenshot of the new Google Maps.
Type	Web mapping
Key people	Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen (Inventor & Co-Founder) Lars Rasmussen (Co-Founder)
Owner	Google
Website	maps.google.com, maps.google.com/preview
Registration	Optional, included with a Google Account
Available in	Multilingual
Launched	February 8, 2005; 9 years ago
Current status	Active

Google Maps is a desktop and mobile web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, offering satellite imagery, street maps, and Street View perspectives, as well as functions such as a route planner for traveling by foot, car, bicycle (beta test), or with public transportation. Also supported are maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API,^[1] and a locator for urban businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Maps satellite images are not updated in real time; however, Google adds data to their Primary Database on a regular basis, and most of the images are no more than 3 years old.^[2]
The opt-in redesigned version of the desktop application has been available since 2013, alongside the "classic" (pre-2013) version. The redesigned version was met by user criticism regarding slowness,^[3] hiding some common functions, removing a scale bar, and lack of other features that include My Places and sharable customized links to parametrized split Street View and Map views.^[4] It is possible to switch back to the old version.^[5]
Google Maps uses a close variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore cannot accurately show areas around the poles. A related product is Google Earth, a stand-alone program which offers more globe-viewing features, including showing polar areas.
Google Maps for mobile is the world's most popular app for smartphones, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it at least once during the month of August 2013.^[6]

Contents

• 1 Satellite view
  • 1.1 Security concerns
• 2 Directions
• 3 Implementation
• 4 Extensibility and customization
  • 4.1 Google Maps API
  • 4.2 Google Maps for mobile and other devices
  • 4.3 Google Maps and Street View parameters
• 5 History
  • 5.1 Acquisitions
  • 5.2 2005
  • 5.3 2006
  • 5.4 2007
  • 5.5 2008
  • 5.6 2009
  • 5.7 2010
  • 5.8 2011
  • 5.9 2012
  • 5.10 2013
  • 5.11 2014
• 6 Google's use of classic Google Maps
  • 6.1 Google Moon
  • 6.2 Google Mars
  • 6.3 Google Sky
  • 6.4 Google Ride Finder
  • 6.5 Google Traffic
  • 6.6 Google Transit
  • 6.7 Google biking directions
  • 6.8 Google My Maps
  • 6.9 Google Street View
  • 6.10 Google Aerial View
  • 6.11 Google Latitude
  • 6.12 Google Flu Vaccine Finder
  • 6.13 Monopoly City Streets
  • 6.14 Indoor Google Maps
  • 6.15 Google Maps Business View
  • 6.16 My Places
• 7 NSA's and GCHQ's use of Google Maps for user surveillance
• 8 Mashups
• 9 Copyright
• 10 Errors
  • 10.1 Fixing and reporting errors
  • 10.2 Maps data
  • 10.3 Business listings
  • 10.4 Imagery
  • 10.5 Different domains
  • 10.6 Miscellaneous
• 11 Map projection
• 12 Comparable services
• 13 See also
• 14 References
• 15 External links