Google Maps

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, 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. Google Earth support states that most of the images are no more than 3 years old. 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 parameterized split Street View and Map views. It is possible to switch back to the old version. 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 Much of the world's available satellite imagery is not more than 3 years old and updated on a regular basis. Google Maps provides high-resolution aerial or satellite images for most urban areas of the world. Satellite imagery does not necessarily appear in the same resolution— for example less populated areas often appear with less detail.[citation needed] Google's mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery, due to its easily pan-able and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool.[citation needed] Websites were created to feature satellite images of interesting natural and human-made landmarks, including such novelties as large writing visible in the imagery, famous stadiums, and unique geological formations. Although Google uses the word satellite, most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 feet (240 m) to 1,500 feet (460 m); however, most of the other imagery is from satellites. Google Aerial View is provided in some urban areas In 2005 the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks, with specific reference to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor; however, the Federal Australian government did not support the organization's concern. At the time of the ANSTO complaint, Google had colored over some areas for security (mostly in the US), such as the rooftop of the White House and several other Washington, D.C., US buildings. Like many other Google web applications, Google Maps uses JavaScript extensively.[14] As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and inserted into the page. When a user searches for a business, the results are downloaded in the background for insertion into the side panel and map; the page is not reloaded. Locations are drawn dynamically by positioning a red pin (composed of several partially transparent PNGs) on top of the map images. A hidden IFrame with form submission is used because it preserves browser history. The site also uses JSON for data transfer rather than XML, for performance reasons. These techniques both fall under the broad Ajax umbrella. The result is termed a slippy map and is implemented elsewhere in projects like OpenLayers. In October 2011, Google announced MapsGL, a WebGL version of Maps with better renderings and smoother transitions. The version of Google Street View for classic Google Maps requires Adobe Flash, while the one for the new Google Maps (2013-) not anymore, as it happened also before with some mobile devices.