Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
10/16/2009
VVW
GOOGLE MAPS
Google Maps | Holmes, Polikhun, Swanston
Page 1 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
Contents
Attribution ................................................................................................................................ 3
Our Contribution ................................................................................................................... 3
Creative Commons ................................................................................................................ 4
Satellite view ............................................................................................................................. 5
Directions .................................................................................................................................. 5
Implementation ........................................................................................................................ 6
Extensibility and customization ................................................................................................ 7
Google Maps API ................................................................................................................... 7
Google Maps for Mobile ....................................................................................................... 8
Google Maps parameters ..................................................................................................... 9
Page 2 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
Attribution
All the content in this report, except for the Top Web Links section is from Wikipedia,
licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License (see below for an
overview of both Wikipedia and the Creative Commons). The following picture shows the
full license below (it is also set up as a hyperlink to the original web source for this license).
(Wikipedia, 2009)
Our Contribution
We have attempted to add extra value to the content by structuring it in an easy to read,
business report format and to add an informative “Top Web Links” section. We have also
added an index to help you find what you are looking for. We hope you find it useful and
worth the $1 purchase price. We have prepared this report as part of a MS Word 2007
assignment for BSYS 1000 – Computer Applications I that we are taking at the British
Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). All proceeds will go to student clubs within the
School of Business at BCIT.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based mostly
on anonymous contributions. The name “Wikipedia” is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a
Page 3 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s articles provide links to
guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by an international (and mostly anonymous) group of
volunteers. Anyone with internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia
articles. There are no requirements to provide one’s real name when contributing; rather,
each writer’s privacy is protected unless they choose to reveal their identity themselves.
Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference
web sites, attracting around 65 million visitors monthly as of 2009. There are more than
75,000 active contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 260
languages. As of today, there are 3,062,069 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of
thousands of visitors from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits
and create thousands of new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia
encyclopedia. (See also: Wikipedia:Statistics.)
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of
creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization
has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These
licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they
waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.
Google Maps (for a time named Google Local) is a web mapping service application and
technology provided by Google, free (for non-commercial use), that powers many mapbased services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit,[1]
and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API.[2] 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".[3]
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.
Page 4 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
Satellite view
Google Maps provides high-resolution satellite images for most urban areas in Canada, and
the United Kingdom,United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin
Islands) as well as parts of Australia and many other countries. 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.[4] Google has blurred some areas for security (mostly in the
United States)[5], including the U.S. Naval Observatory area (where the official residence of
the Vice President is located), and previously[citation needed] 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. Places that are less populated are
usually not covered in as much detail as populated areas. In some areas, there are patches
of clouds which make the map cluttered.[6]
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[update], the U.S. National
Weather Service also now uses Google Maps within its local weather forecasts, showing the
5 times 5 km "point forecast" squares used in forecast models.[7]
Although Google uses the word satellite, most of the high-resolution imagery is aerial
photography taken from airplanes rather than from satellites.[8]
See also: Coverage details of Google Maps
Directions
Google Maps directions work:
Page 5 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
Contiguously in North America: Alaska*, Canada* and 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*, Hungary*, Ireland*, Italy*,
Latvia, Liechtenstein*, Lithuania, Luxembourg*, Monaco*, The Netherlands*, Norway*,
Poland*, Portugal*, San Marino, Slovakia*, Slovenia, Spain*, Sweden*, Switzerland*,
Turkey*, United Kingdom*, Vatican City (i.e., all of Europe, excluding Albania, Belarus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia*,
Serbia, Ukraine 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*.
^ = 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.
Page 6 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
The geographic information system data used in Google Maps are provided by Tele Atlas
annually.
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 or Geocoding, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to
display ads in the future.[9]
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,[10] 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.
Page 7 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
When the API first launched, it lacks 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.[11] 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[update], 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[12] 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, which is
intended to run on any Java-based phone or mobile device. Many of the web-based site's
features are provided in the application.[13]
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.
Page 8 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
As of December 15, 2008 (2008 -12-15)[update], this service is available for the following
platforms:[14]
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)
Google Maps parameters
In Google Maps, URL parameters may be tweaked to offer views and options not normally
available through on-screen controls.
For instance, the maximum zoom level offered is normally 18, but if higher-resolution
images are available, changing the z parameter, which sets the zoom level, will allow the
user to access them, as in this view of elephants or this view of people at a well deep in
Chad, Africa using the parameter z=23.
A list of Google Maps parameters and their descriptions is available.
Development history
Google Maps first started as a software application developed by Lars and Jens Rasmussen
for the company Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004 the company was acquired by
Google Inc[15] where it transformed into the web application Google Maps. The application
was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005,[16] and was located at
http://maps.google.com/. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla
web browsers, but support for Opera and Safari was added on February 25, 2005, but
Page 9 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
currently Opera is removed from the system requirements list. Currently (September 2009)
Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 2.0+, Safari 3.1+, and Google Chrome are supported.[17] It
was in beta for six months before becoming part of Google Local on October 6, 2005.
This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by
converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (April 2008)
In April 2005, Google created Google Ride Finder using Google Maps.
In June 2005, Google released the Google Maps API.
In July 2005, Google began Google Maps and Google Local services for Japan, including road
maps.
On July 22, 2005, Google released "Hybrid View". Together with this change, the satellite
image data was converted from plate carrée to Mercator projection, which makes for a less
distorted image in the temperate climes latitudes.
In July 2005, in honor of the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, Google
Moon was launched.
In September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Maps quickly updated its
satellite imagery of New Orleans to allow users to view the extent of the flooding in various
parts of that city. (Oddly, in March 2007, imagery showing hurricane damage was replaced
with images from before the storm; this replacement was not made on Google Earth, which
still uses post-Katrina imagery.) [18][19]
As of January 2, 2006 (2006 -01-02)[update], Google Maps features road maps for the
United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and certain cities in the
Republic of Ireland. Coverage of the area around Turin was added in time for the 2006
Winter Olympics.
On January 23, 2006, Google Maps was updated to use the same satellite image database as
Google Earth.
Google Maps promotional livery on New York City subway cars, Nov. 2008On March 12,
2006, Google Mars[20] was launched, which features a draggable map and satellite imagery
of the planet Mars.
In April 2006, Google Local was merged into the main Google Maps site.
On April 3, 2006, version 2 of the Maps API was released.
Page 10 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
On June 11, 2006, Google added geocoding capabilities to the API, satisfying what it called
the most requested feature for this service.
On June 14, 2006, Google Maps for Enterprise was officially launched. As a commercial
service, it features intranet and advertisement-free implementations.
In July 2006 Google started including Google Maps business listings in the form of Local
OneBoxes in the main Google search results.[21]
On December 9 Google integrates the PlusBox in the main search results.[22]
On December 19 Google added a feature that lets you add multiple destinations to your
driving directions.[23]
Beginning in February 2007, buildings and subway stops are displayed in Google Maps "map
view" for parts of New York City, Washington, D.C., London, San Francisco, and some other
cities.[24]
On January 29, 2007 upgrades Local Universal results and includes more data in the main
Google results page
On February 28, 2007, Google Traffic info was officially launched to automatically include
real-time traffic flow conditions to the maps of 30 major cities of the United States.
On March 8, 2007, the Local Business Center is upgraded.
On May 16, 2007 Google rolls out Universal search results including more Map information
on the main Google results page.
On May 18, 2007 Google adds neighborhood search capability.
On May 29, 2007, Google driving directions support was added to the Google Maps API.
On May 29, 2007, Street View was added. It gives ground level 360 degree view of streets in
some major cities in United States.
On June 19, 2007, allows reviews to be added directly to businesses on Google Maps
On June 28, 2007, draggable driving directions were introduced.
On July 31, 2007, support for the hCard microformat was announced; Google Maps search
results will now output the hCard microformat; unfortunately, the implementation is
broken.
On August 21, 2007, Google announces a simple way to embed Google Maps onto other
websites
Page 11 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
On September 13, 2007 54 new countries are added to Google Maps in Latin America and
Asia.
On October 3, 2007 Google Transit was integrated into Google Maps making public
transportation routing possible on Google Maps.
On October 27, 2007, Google Maps starts mapping the geoweb and showing the results in
Google Maps.
On October 27, 2007 Google Maps adds a searchable interface for coupons in the business
listings.
On November 27, 2007, "Terrain" view showing basic topographic features was added. The
button for "Hybrid" view was removed, and replaced with a "Show labels" checkbox under
the "Satellite" button to switch between "Hybrid" and "Satellite" views.
On January 22,2008 Google expands the Local Onebox from 3 business listings to 10.
On February 20, 2008, Google Maps allows searches to be refined by User Rating &
neighborhoods.
On March 18, 2008, Google allows end users to edit business listings and add new places.
On March 19, 2008, Google adds unlimited category options in the Local Business Center.
On April 2, 2008, Google adds a contour lines to the Terrain view.
In April 2008, a button to view recent Saved Locations was added to the right of the search
field (must be signed in).
In May 2008, a "More" button was added alongside the "Map", "Satellite", and "Terrain"
buttons, permitting access to geographically-related photos on Panoramio and articles on
Wikipedia.
On May 15, 2008, ported to Flash and ActionScript 3 as a foundation for richer internet
applications.
On July 15, 2008, walking directions were added.[25]
On August 6, 2008, Street View launched in Japan and Australia.[25]
On August 15, 2008, the user interface was redesigned.[25]
On August 29, 2008, Google signed a deal under which GeoEye will supply the search giant
with imagery from a satellite,[26] and introduced the Map Maker tool for creation of map
data.[25]
On September 9, 2008, a reverse business lookup feature was added.[25]
Page 12 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
On September 23, 2008, information for the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority
was added.[25]
On October 7, 2008, GeoEye-1 took its first image, a bird's-eye view of Kutztown University
in Pennsylvania.[27]
On October 26, 2008, reverse geocoding was added to the Maps API.[25]
On November 11, 2008, Street View in Spain, Italy, and France was introduced.[25]
On November 23, 2008, AIR support for the Maps API for Flash was added.[25]
On November 25, 2008, a new user interface for Street View was introduced.[25]
On November 27, 2008, maps, local business information, and local trends for China were
introduced.[25]
On December 9, 2008, 2x Street View coverage was introduced.[25]
In May, 2009, a new Google Maps logo was introduced.[citation needed]
In early October 2009, Google replaces TeleAtlas as their primary supplier of geospatial data
in the U.S. version of Maps and use their own data. [28]
In October 2009, the railroads were redone, featuring a slightly new look and updated,
removing older lines.[citation needed] Also in the same month, maps in several areas were
changed to include paper streets and other odd roads that don't exist, as well as lot lines
showing up on the map interface.[citation needed]
Page 13 of 14
Google Maps By Holmes, Polikhun and Swanston
Resources
Table 1 – Top Web Source
Top Web Source
Source
URL
Page 14 of 14