Google Maps (formerly Google Local) is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free (for non-commercial use), that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot, car, or public transport and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world. Google Maps satellite images are not in real time; they are several months or years old.
Google Maps uses a close variant of the Mercator projection, so it cannot 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.
Contiguous regions on Google MapsThe "Get Directions" option provides a route planner. Depending on the area, it may allow the choice between "by car", "by public transit" (see the Google Transit section below), and "walking".
Google Maps directions works for the option "by car":
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.
Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata, and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data.
Combinations with photo sharing websites, such as Flickr, are used to create "memory maps".[clarification needed What are memory maps?] Using copies of the Keyhole satellite photos,[clarification needed What are Keyhole satellite photos?] users have taken advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.
By using the Google Maps API, it is possible to embed Google Maps site into an external website, on to which site specific data can be overlaid. Although initially only a JavaScript API, the Maps API has since expanded to include an API for Adobe Flash applications, a service for retrieving static map images, and web services for performing geocoding, generating driving directions, and obtaining elevation profiles. Over 350,000 web sites use the Google Maps API, making it the most heavily used web application development API
The Google Maps API is free for commercial use providing that the site on which it is being used is publicly accessible and does not charge for access. Sites that do not meet these requirements can purchase Google Maps API Premier.
The success of the Google Maps API has spawned a number of competing alternatives, including the Yahoo! Maps API, Bing Maps Platform, MapQuest Development Platform, and OpenLayers.
On November 28, 2007, Google Maps for Mobile 2.0 was released. It introduced a GPS-like location service that does not require a GPS receiver. The "my location" feature works by utilizing the GPS location of the mobile device, if it is available. This information is supplemented by the software determining the nearest wireless networks and cell sites. The software then looks up the location of the cell site using a database of known wireless networks and cell sites. The Cell-site location method is used by triangulating the different signal strengths from different cell transmiters and then using their location property (retrieved from the online cell site database) to aid My Location in determining the user's current location. Wireless network location method is calculated by discovering the nearby WiFi hotspots and using their location property (retrieved from the online WiFi database, in the same way as the cell site database) to further discover the user's location. The order in which these take precedence is:
As of December 15, 2008[update], this service is available for the following platforms:
In March 2011, Google Vice President of Location Service, Marissa Mayer announced that Google provides map services to 150 millions users.
Google Maps for AndroidCell phones are being increasingly used for navigation assistance. However, text driving instructions are sometimes confusing to follow. While navigation devices have become a billion dollar industry, Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 is free.
Features provided in the application:
Shares of Tom-Tom, Garmin and other navigation service providers fell by almost twenty-five percent after Google's announcement of Google Maps for Navigation. The application was only available initially to Verizon users with Android 2.0 or higher.[citation needed]
or this view of people at a well
in Chad, Africa. Different versions of the API and web interfaces may or may not fully support these higher levels. As of October 2010, the Google map viewer updates its zoom bar to allow the user to zoom all the way when centered over areas that support higher zoom levels.
Google MarsGoogle Mars provides a visible imagery view, like Google Moon, as well as infrared imagery and shaded relief (elevation) of the planet Mars. Users can toggle between the elevation, visible, and infrared data, in the same manner as switching between map, satellite, and hybrid modes of Google Maps. In collaboration with NASA scientists at the Mars Space Flight Facility located at Arizona State University, Google has provided the public with data collected from two NASA Mars missions, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey.
Now, with Google Earth 5 it is possible to access new improved Google Mars data at a much higher resolution, as well as being able to view the terrain in 3D, and viewing panoramas from various Mars landers in a similar way to Google Street View.
In December 2005, Google launched public transport route planner Google Transit on Google Labs, a 20% project of Chris Harrelson and Avichal Garg. Google Transit launched initially with support for Portland, Oregon, and now includes hundreds of cities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, India (Pune & Delhi,NCR) New Zealand. The service calculates route, transit time and cost, and can compare the trip to one using a car. In October 2007 Google Transit graduated from Google Labs and became fully integrated into Google Maps.
In some areas, such as the United Kingdom, Google Transit covers only part of the transit agencies. For example Transport for London does not provide its data to Google Transit, but some bus companies do, leading to a warning "The coverage may be incomplete" when looking for transit directions in or around London.
In other areas, Google Transit does not provide public transit directions, but still provides the Transit Layer which overlays the schematic of the transit lines on the map. Notable examples include Paris, Berlin, Mexico City and many other capitals around the world.
Each element added to a My Map has an editable tag. This tag can contain text, rich text or HTML. Embeddable video and other content can be included within the HTML tag.
Upon the launch of My Maps there was no facility to embed the created maps into a webpage or blog. A few independent websites have now produced tools to let users embed maps and add further functionality to their maps. This has been resolved with version 2.78
Google Street View is currently available in parts of the following countries:
In August 2008, Australia was added to the Street View feature with nearly all Australian highways, roads and streets having the feature. In addition in that month Japan was added and the Tour de France route was added on July 2 of that year. In December 2008, New Zealand was added to street view. The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are the only countries to date with almost all roads and highways featured.
July 2009, Google begins mapping college campuses and surrounding paths and trails. Mexico's main cities and tourist points are added to Street View.
Street View garnered much controversy after its release because of privacy concerns about the uncensored nature of the panoramic photographs. Since then, Google has begun blurring faces through automatic fach other, resulting in listings
Google Maps uses a close variant of the Mercator projection, so it cannot 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.
Satellite view
Google Maps provides high-resolution satellite images for most urban areas in the United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as parts of Australia and many other countries. The high-resolution imagery has been used by Google Maps to cover all of Egypt's Nile Valley, Sahara desert and Sinai. Google Maps also covers many cities in the English speaking areas. However, Google Maps is not solely an English maps service, since its service is intended to cover the world. Various governments have complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks.[dead link] Google has blurred some areas for security (mostly in the United States),including the U.S. Naval Observatory area (where the official residence of the Vice President is located), and previously the United States Capitol and the White House. Other well-known government installations, including Area 51 in the Nevada desert, are visible. Not all areas on satellite images are covered in the same resolution; less populated areas usually get less detail. Some areas may be obscured by patches of clouds.With the introduction of an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool, Google's mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery. Sites were established which feature satellite images of interesting natural and man-made landmarks, including such novelties as "large type" writing visible in the imagery, as well as famous stadia and unique geological formations. Although Google uses the word satellite, most of the high-resolution imagery is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800–1500 feet rather than from satellites.Directions
Google Maps directions works for the option "by car":
- Contiguously on the African mainland, with the exception of Egypt, Lesotho and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla
- Contiguously in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia: Andorra, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark (excluding the Faroe Islands), Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Gibraltar, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Nepal, The Netherlands, Norway (excluding Svalbard), Pakistan, Poland, Portugal (excluding the Azores and Madeira), Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain (including the Canary Islands and Ceuta and Melilla), Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, and the Vatican City
- Contiguously in North America: Belize, Canada, Mexico, and the United States
- Contiguously in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru (most parts, except e.g. Iquitos and other places in the Loreto region)
- Contiguously in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam
- In certain noncontiguous countries and regions: Australia, Barbados, China, Comoros, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Hawaii, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia (Bali, Java, Madura, and Sumatra contiguously, Lombok, Sulawesi, ), Israel (and parts of the West Bank), Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Macau, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (mainland in development), Puerto Rico, Réunion, Russia (Moscow area only), Sabah, Sarawak, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Timor-Leste (eastern half only), Turks and Caicos Islands, Upolu (Samoa), and the US Virgin Islands.
Implementation
Like many other Google web applications, Google Maps uses JavaScript extensively. 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.
Extensibility and customization
As Google Maps is coded almost entirely in JavaScript and XML, some end users have reverse-engineered the tool and produced client-side scripts and server-side hooks which allowed a user or website to introduce expanded or customized features into the Google Maps interface.Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata, and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data.
Combinations with photo sharing websites, such as Flickr, are used to create "memory maps".[clarification needed What are memory maps?] Using copies of the Keyhole satellite photos,[clarification needed What are Keyhole satellite photos?] users have taken advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.
Google Maps API
Google launched the Google Maps API in June 2005 to allow developers to integrate Google Maps into their websites. It is a free service, and currently[update] does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.By using the Google Maps API, it is possible to embed Google Maps site into an external website, on to which site specific data can be overlaid. Although initially only a JavaScript API, the Maps API has since expanded to include an API for Adobe Flash applications, a service for retrieving static map images, and web services for performing geocoding, generating driving directions, and obtaining elevation profiles. Over 350,000 web sites use the Google Maps API, making it the most heavily used web application development API
The Google Maps API is free for commercial use providing that the site on which it is being used is publicly accessible and does not charge for access. Sites that do not meet these requirements can purchase Google Maps API Premier.
The success of the Google Maps API has spawned a number of competing alternatives, including the Yahoo! Maps API, Bing Maps Platform, MapQuest Development Platform, and OpenLayers.
Google Maps for Mobile
In 2006, Google introduced a Java application called Google Maps for Mobile, intended to run on any Java-based phone or mobile device. Many of the web-based site's features are provided in the application.On November 28, 2007, Google Maps for Mobile 2.0 was released. It introduced a GPS-like location service that does not require a GPS receiver. The "my location" feature works by utilizing the GPS location of the mobile device, if it is available. This information is supplemented by the software determining the nearest wireless networks and cell sites. The software then looks up the location of the cell site using a database of known wireless networks and cell sites. The Cell-site location method is used by triangulating the different signal strengths from different cell transmiters and then using their location property (retrieved from the online cell site database) to aid My Location in determining the user's current location. Wireless network location method is calculated by discovering the nearby WiFi hotspots and using their location property (retrieved from the online WiFi database, in the same way as the cell site database) to further discover the user's location. The order in which these take precedence is:
- GPS-based services
- WLAN-, WiFi-based services
- Cell transmitter-based services
As of December 15, 2008[update], this service is available for the following platforms:
- Android
- iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
- Windows Mobile (NOT Windows Phone 7 as of Dec 17 2010)
- Nokia/Symbian (S60 3rd edition only)
- Symbian OS (UIQ v3)
- BlackBerry
- Phones with Java-Platform (MIDP 2.0 and up), for example the Sony Ericsson K800i
- Palm OS (Centro and newer)
- Palm webOS (Palm Pre and Palm Pixi)
In March 2011, Google Vice President of Location Service, Marissa Mayer announced that Google provides map services to 150 millions users.
Google Maps Android 2.0
Features provided in the application:
- Search in plain English
- Search by voice
- Traffic view
- Search along route
- Satellite view
- Street View
- Car dock mode
 | The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2010) |
Impact
Google Maps Navigation is free. The drawback of Google Maps for Android is that an internet connection is required to get maps and related information from Google Maps, just like with iPhone’s Google Maps application.Shares of Tom-Tom, Garmin and other navigation service providers fell by almost twenty-five percent after Google's announcement of Google Maps for Navigation. The application was only available initially to Verizon users with Android 2.0 or higher.[citation needed]
Google Maps parameters
In Google Maps, URL parameters are sometimes data-driven in their limits and the user interface presented by the web may or may not reflect those limits. In particular, the zoom level (denoted by the z parameter) supported varies. In less populated regions, the supported zoom levels might stop at around 18. In earlier versions of the API, specifying these higher values might results in no image being displayed. In Western cities, the supported zoom level generally stops at about 20. In some isolated cases, the data supports up to 23 or greater, as in these elephantsor this view of people at a well
in Chad, Africa. Different versions of the API and web interfaces may or may not fully support these higher levels. As of October 2010, the Google map viewer updates its zoom bar to allow the user to zoom all the way when centered over areas that support higher zoom levels.
Google Mars
Main article: Google Mars
Now, with Google Earth 5 it is possible to access new improved Google Mars data at a much higher resolution, as well as being able to view the terrain in 3D, and viewing panoramas from various Mars landers in a similar way to Google Street View.
Google Sky
Main article: Google Sk
On August 27, 2007, Google introduced Google Sky, an online space mapping tool that allows users to pan through a map of the visible universe, using photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. | This section requires expansion. |
Google Ride Finder
Google launched an experimental Google Maps-based tool called Ride Finder, tapping into in-car GPS units for a selection of participating taxi and limousine services. The tool displays the current location of all supported vehicles of the participating services in major U.S. cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, on a Google Maps street map. As of 2009 the tool seems to be discontinued. Not to be confused with carpooling.Google Transit
| This section requires expansion. |
Coverage
The coverage of Google Transit is publicly available. It is spread worldwide, in hundreds of cities and sometimes in entire countries such as China, Japan, Switzerland. The coverage of major cities in the United States and in Canada is almost exhaustive, with a few notable exceptions (as of January 2011) such as Washington, DC.In some areas, such as the United Kingdom, Google Transit covers only part of the transit agencies. For example Transport for London does not provide its data to Google Transit, but some bus companies do, leading to a warning "The coverage may be incomplete" when looking for transit directions in or around London.
In other areas, Google Transit does not provide public transit directions, but still provides the Transit Layer which overlays the schematic of the transit lines on the map. Notable examples include Paris, Berlin, Mexico City and many other capitals around the world.
Google Biking directions
On March 10, 2010, Google added the possibility to search for biking directions on Google Maps. Optimal routes are calculated from traffic, elevation change, bike paths, bike lanes, and preferred roads for biking. An optional layer also shows different types of biking paths, from bike-only trails to preferred roads. This service is available in the US and Canada, and is in beta testing in some other countries such as Singapore.Google My Maps
In April 2007, My Maps was a new feature added to Google's local search maps. My Maps lets users and businesses create their own map by positioning markers, polylines and polygons onto a map. The interface is a straightforward overlay on the map. A set of eighty-four pre-designed markers is available, ranging from bars and restaurants to webcam and earthquake symbols. Polyline and Polygon color, width and opacity are selectable. Maps modified using My Maps can be saved for later viewing and made public or marked as unlisted, in which case a user will need the saved URL with a 42 character unique ID.Each element added to a My Map has an editable tag. This tag can contain text, rich text or HTML. Embeddable video and other content can be included within the HTML tag.
Upon the launch of My Maps there was no facility to embed the created maps into a webpage or blog. A few independent websites have now produced tools to let users embed maps and add further functionality to their maps. This has been resolved with version 2.78
Google Street View
Main article: Google Street View
On May 25, 2007, Google released Street View, a new feature of Google Maps which provides 360° panoramic street-level views of various U.S. cities. On this date, the feature only included five cities, but has since expanded to thousands of locations around the world.Google Street View is currently available in parts of the following countries:
Antarctica
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Macau
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Romania
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States
In August 2008, Australia was added to the Street View feature with nearly all Australian highways, roads and streets having the feature. In addition in that month Japan was added and the Tour de France route was added on July 2 of that year. In December 2008, New Zealand was added to street view. The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are the only countries to date with almost all roads and highways featured.
July 2009, Google begins mapping college campuses and surrounding paths and trails. Mexico's main cities and tourist points are added to Street View.
Street View garnered much controversy after its release because of privacy concerns about the uncensored nature of the panoramic photographs. Since then, Google has begun blurring faces through automatic fach other, resulting in listings
