Google Maps Service
A Google Maps Service is an online mapping service operated by Google LLC.
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- Example(s):
- See: Web Mapping, Satellite Imagery, Aerial Photography, Google Street View.
References
2020
- (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps Retrieved:2020-2-6.
- Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle and air (in beta), or public transportation.
Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program 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 realtime traffic analyzer, Google Maps was launched in February 2005. 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, 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. 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 , while most other imagery is from satellites. Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis. Google Maps used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles. However, in August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe as the default projection. It is still possible to switch back to the Mercator Projection in the settings. Google Maps for Android and iOS devices was released in September 2008 and features GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. In August 2013, it was determined to be the world's most popular app for smartphones, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it at least once. In 2012, Google reported having over 7,100 employees and contractors directly working in mapping. In 2017, along with several other services including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Google Play, Google Maps reached over 1 billion monthly users.
- Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle and air (in beta), or public transportation.
2020
- https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/06/google-celebrates-maps-15th-birthday-with-a-new-icon-and-detailed-transit-data/
- QUOTE: Today marks the 15th anniversary of Google Maps, a service that’s now used by over 1 billion people around the world every month. From humble beginnings in geospatial visualization and traffic analysis technologies at Keyhole, ZipDash, and Where 2 Technologies, it’s become one of the largest projects at Google with over 7,100 employees and contractors directly contributing. The enormity of Google Maps’ corpora arguably justifies the breadth of the effort — Google has mapped more than 200 million places (6.5 billion of which users have bookmarked) across 220 countries to date and adds over 20 million photos, reviews, ratings, and other pieces of content from users every day.
Some other mind-bending stats? Google Earth, which brought 3D views of the planet to the desktop in the early 2000s, now features more than 36 million square miles of images. Not to be outdone, Street View’s more than 170 billion panoramic images cover over 10 million miles. Local Guides, a community of Maps users who contribute reviews and more, has more than 120 million members. Maps includes accessibility info (like wheelchair-friendly entrances and restrooms) for more than 50 million places around the world. And more than 5 million websites and apps use Google Maps Platform every week, a set of APIs and SDK that let developers integrate Maps with existing apps.
- QUOTE: Today marks the 15th anniversary of Google Maps, a service that’s now used by over 1 billion people around the world every month. From humble beginnings in geospatial visualization and traffic analysis technologies at Keyhole, ZipDash, and Where 2 Technologies, it’s become one of the largest projects at Google with over 7,100 employees and contractors directly contributing. The enormity of Google Maps’ corpora arguably justifies the breadth of the effort — Google has mapped more than 200 million places (6.5 billion of which users have bookmarked) across 220 countries to date and adds over 20 million photos, reviews, ratings, and other pieces of content from users every day.