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Google Maps is a web-based mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, interactive 360° street views, real-time driving conditions, and route planning for walking, driving, cycling and by air (in beta) or for the public transportation. In 2020, more than 1 billion people used Google Maps every month.

Google Maps started out as a C++ desktop program at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application. Following additional acquisitions by a geospatial data visualization company and real-time traffic analyzer, Google Maps 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 companies and other organizations in many countries around the world. Google Map Maker allowed users to collaboratively expand and update a map service around the world, but support was dropped in March 2017. However, the crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps did not stop because the company announced that these features will be transferred to the Google Local Guides program.

Google Maps satellite view is a top-down or bird’s-eye view; most high-resolution images of cities are aerial photographs taken by an airplane flying between 800 and 1500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other images are from satellites. Most of the available satellite imagery is less than three years old and is updated regularly. Google Maps used a variant of the Mercator projection and therefore could not accurately show the areas around the poles. In August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to display a 3D globe. It is also possible to return to the 2D map in the settings.

Google Maps for Android and iOS devices was released in September 2008 and includes GPS turn-by-turn navigation as well as dedicated parking assist features. In August 2013, it was voted the most popular smartphone app in the world, with over 54% of smartphone owners worldwide using it at least once.

In 2012, Google announced that more than 7,100 employees and contractors are working directly in mapping. In 2017, along with several other Google services, including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search and Google Play, Google Maps had over 1 billion monthly users. Google Maps was first launched as a C++ program developed by two Danish brothers, Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen, at the Sydney-based company Where 2 Technologies. It was originally designed to be downloaded separately from users, but the company later pitched the idea of a purely web-based product to Google management, changing the distribution method. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google Inc. where it is converted to the Google Maps web application.

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