Google Maps (for a time named Google Local ) is a basic 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. According to one of its creators (Lars Rasmussen), Google Maps is "a way of organizing the world's information geographically".
Google Maps uses the Mercator projection, so it cannot show areas around the poles. A related product is Google Earth, a stand-alone program for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SymbianOS, and iPhone OS 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. The highest-resolution images are in some Japanese cities, such as Tokyo.
Various governments have complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks. 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 (which formerly featured this erased housetop). 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. As of November 2008, the U.S. National Weather Service also now uses Google Maps within its local weather forecasts, showing the 5 x 5 km "point forecast" squares used in forecast models.
Although Google uses the word satellite , most of the high-resolution imagery is aerial photography taken from airplanes rather than from satellites.
See also: Coverage details of Google MapsDirections
Google Maps directions work:
- Contiguously in North America: Alaska*, Canada*, and the contiguous United States*.
- Contiguously in South America: Argentina, Brazil* and Chile*
- Contiguously in Europe: Andorra, Austria*, Belgium*, Bulgaria, Croatia*, Czech Republic*, Denmark*, Estonia, France*, Finland*, Germany*, Greece*, Gibraltar, Hungary*, Ireland, Italy*, Latvia, Liechtenstein*, Lithuania, Luxembourg*, Monaco*, The Netherlands*, Norway*, Poland*, Portugal*, San Marino, Slovakia*, Slovenia, Spain*, Sweden*, Switzerland*, Turkey*, Ukraine, United Kingdom*, Vatican City (i.e., all of Europe, excluding Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia*, Serbia, and Iceland).
- Contiguously in South East Asia: Singapore*, Malaysia* and Thailand
- Single countries: Australia*, Borneo *^, China*, India*, Israel (and parts of the West Bank), Hawaii*, Hong Kong*, Japan*, Java, Macau, New Zealand*, Puerto Rico*, Russia* (Moscow area only), Taiwan*, US Virgin Islands*, South Africa*.
^ = not all roads are featured in this country, so directions are very limited.
* = has directions and places of interest.
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". Using copies of the 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 created the Google Maps API to allow developers to integrate Google Maps into their websites with their own data points. It is a free service, and currently 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 the full Google Maps site into an external website. Developers are required to request an API key, which is bound to the website and directory entered when creating the key. The Google Maps API key is no longer required for API version 3. Creating a customized map interface requires adding the Google JavaScript code to a page, and then using Javascript functions to add points to the map.
When the API first launched, it lacked the ability to geocode addresses, requiring users to manually add points in (latitude, longitude) format. This feature has since been added for premier.
At the same time as the release of the Google Maps API, Yahoo! released its own Maps API. The releases coincided with the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference. Yahoo! Maps, which lacks international support, included a geocoder in the first release.
As of October 2006, the implementation of Google Gadgets' Google Maps is simpler, requiring only one line of script, but it is not as customizable as the full API.
In 2006, Yahoo! began a campaign to upgrade its maps to compete better with Google and other online map companies. Several of the maps used in a survey were similar to Google maps.
Google Maps actively promotes the commercial use of its API. Some of its first large-scale adopters were real estate mash-up sites. Google performed a case study about Nestoria, a property search engine in the UK and Spain.
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 cell site. The software then looks up the location of the cell site using a database of known cell sites. The software plots the streets in blue that are available with a yellow icon and a green circle around the estimated range of the cell site based on the transmitter's rated power (among other variables). The estimate is refined using the strength of the cell phone signal to estimate how close to the cell site the mobile device is.
As of December 15, 2008 ( 2008 -12-15 ) , this service is available for the following platforms:
- Android
- iPhone OS (iPhone/iPod Touch)
- Windows Mobile
- 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)
On November 4th, 2009, Google Maps Navigation was released in conjunction with Google Android OS 2.0 Eclair on the Motorola Droid, adding voice commands, traffic reports, and street view support. The initial release is limited to the United States.
Android 2.0
Android 2.0 is an operating system for mobile devices and is an upgrade from its previous versions. It provides platform (APIs) for developing new mobile appli
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