Google Maps is a free, online map service provided by Google. It offers a draggable map, route planner and business locator for the U.S. and Canada, the UK and Ireland. It is currently in beta testing.

Development

Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla web browsers, but support for Opera and Safari was added on February 25, 2005.

Like other Google web applications, a large amount of JavaScript was used to create Google Maps. As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and displayed to the user. When a user searches for a business, the location is pin-pointed with a red pin, which is actually a transparent PNG placed over the map. A complete explanation of the technical side of Google maps can be found here [1].

Features

Google Maps features a draggable map that can be zoomed in to show detailed street information. The user can control the map with the mouse or the arrow keys to move to the desired location. To allow for quick movement, the "+" and "-" keys can be used to control the zoom level. Users may enter an address, intersection or general area to quickly find it on the map.

Search results can be restricted to a certain area, thanks to Google Local. For example, someone can enter a query such as "Waffles in Toronto" to find restaurants serving waffles near the city. This can be used to find a wide variety of businesses, such as theatres, restaurants or hotels.

Like many other map services, Google Maps allows for the creation of driving directions. It gives the user a step by step list of how to get to their destination, along with an estimate of the time required to reach it and the distance between the two locations.

The "link to this page" link on each Google Maps map puts a long URL on the clipboard which contains the latitude and longitude. The latitude and longitude can be used as input to TerraServer-USA, which in some cases has higher resolution imagery.

Interesting Satellite Images

In early April 2005, an alternate view to see satellite imagery of the area displayed, was activated. Notably, and unlike other satellite services which provided images in the past, it is possible to overlay directions which are correctly positioned on the satellite image [2].

Full zoom dimension is only available for relatively populated (urban) regions.

• Non-Government
  • Astrodome, Houston, Texas map
  • Barringer Crater, near Winslow, Arizona map
  • Body Farm, Knoxville, Tennessee map
  • Burning Man map
  • California Poppy Preserve , Lancaster, California map
    • Every Spring, the Southern California landscape is covered with these orange flowers.
  • Central Park, New York City, New York map
  • Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio map
  • Crazy Horse Memorial, outside Custer, South Dakota map
  • Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina map
  • General Motors Proving Ground, Milford, Michigan map
  • Glen Canyon Dam map
  • Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California map
  • Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee - home of Elvis Presley map
  • Grand Canyon, Arizona map
  • Ground Zero, New York City map
  • Hollywood Sign map
  • Hoover Dam, outside Boulder City, Nevada map
  • Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, Indiana map
  • Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada map
  • Mauna Kea, Hawaii map
  • Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch map
  • Mount Rushmore, outside Keystone, South Dakota map
  • Niagara Falls map
  • Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Glen Canyon Utah map
  • Saint Louis Arch, St. Louis, Missouri map
  • Salvation Mountain, Slab City, California map
  • Space Needle, Seattle, Washington map
  • U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama map
  • USS Alabama at Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama map
    • Note, while this is a military ship, it is retired to a civilian park/museum.
  • Vols Stadium and the Sunsphere, Knoxville, Tennessee map
  • Washington Monument, Washington, DC map
  • Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom, near Orlando, Florida map
    • Notice the familiar Mickey Mouse ears at the entrance

• US Government
  • Airplane Graveyard, Tucson, Arizona map
  • Airplane Graveyard and spaceflight test runway at Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California map
  • Area 51 at Groom Lake map
  • A B-2_Spirit at assembly plant in Palmdale, CA map
  • Craters at Nellis Bombing Range map
  • Cyclotron ring at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York map
  • An F-117 at assembly plant in Palmdale, CA map
  • Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert, CA map
  • A half-open Titan ICBM silo map
  • U2 spy plane in flight (note shadow) at Beale Air Force Base map
  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA map
  • Naval Graveyard, Benicia, California map
  • Particle accelerator at Fermilab map
  • Space shuttle launch pads and landing runway at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida map
  • The Pentagon in Crystal City, Virginia map
  • SR-71s on the runway of Edwards Air Force Base map
  • United States-Mexico border crossing at Tijuana map
  • USS Yorktown (CV-10) aircraft carrier, at Patriot's Point , Charleston, South Carolina map
  • The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC map
    • Note the redaction of the roof tops for national security reasons.

• Other Interesting Images
  • The roof of a Target store in Des Plaines, Illinois map

A robust collection of interesting satellite images are available here

See also

• List of Google services and tools
• Google Local
• NASA World Wind
• TerraServer-USA

Competition

• MapQuest
• Yahoo! Maps

External links

• Google Maps
• Google Blog Announcement
• Technical Analysis of Google Maps
• Google Feature Incorporates Satellite Maps