*** Welcome to piglix ***

Google Maps

Google Maps
Google Maps Logo.svg
Type of site
Web mapping
Available in Multilingual
Owner Google
Key people Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen
(Inventor, co-founder)
Lars Rasmussen (Co-founder)
Website www.google.com/maps
Commercial Yes
Registration Optional, included with a Google Account
Launched February 8, 2005; 11 years ago (2005-02-08)
Current status Active
Written in C++ (back-end), JavaScript, XML, Ajax (UI)

Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions (Google Traffic), and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle (in beta), or public transportation.

Google maps began as a C++ desktop program designed by Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen 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 urban businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Map Maker allows users to collaboratively expand and update the service's mapping worldwide.

Google Maps' satellite view is a "top-down" or "birds eye" view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), 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 uses a close variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore cannot accurately show areas around the poles.


...
Wikipedia

...