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.
Although the aerial views images are undated, they occasionally coincide with known events. For example, as of Oct. 8, 2011, the aerial view of the Hollywood region of Los Angeles shows the street-closures and temporary structures related to the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony.
The "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), "walking", and "bicycling".
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.
In October 2011, Google announced MapsGL, a WebGL version of Maps with better renderings and smoother transitions.
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, users have taken advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.
Although the aerial views images are undated, they occasionally coincide with known events. For example, as of Oct. 8, 2011, the aerial view of the Hollywood region of Los Angeles shows the street-closures and temporary structures related to the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony.
The "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), "walking", and "bicycling".
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In October 2011, Google announced MapsGL, a WebGL version of Maps with better renderings and smoother transitions.
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