Google Lat Long Blog

For the umpteenth time:

There was never a Google Maps app on the iPhone, there was an Apple app powered by Google's data.

The correct way of stating this is that Apple's iOS6 maps app is more data efficient than previous versions. As for the main reason the current app is more efficient is that it relies on vector graphics instead of image tiles, a technique Google have been using on Android for nearly 2 years:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/under-hood-of-google-maps-50-for.html

Another Android maps feature lets users select areas to cache offline, which I imagine saves even more data (it auto-caches frequented areas): http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/06/go-offline-with-google-maps-for-android.html

That feature is also worth mentioning for when Apple duplicates it and some people try to convince themselves that it was Apple's idea.

Actual announcement: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/08/know-traffic-to-speed-up-your-trips-in.html

How do people actually use the traffic layer on Google Maps? It’s not obvious how a red highway compares to a green side street. And how stale are the data? My friends just ignore the traffic layer and use Caltrans’ website directly because the source is known and presumably the information delays are more deterministic.

How many Android phone owners walking down the street does it take before that street is marked red?

Google has been putting a lot of focus on expanding traffic coverage, but it’s not as useful without any transparency about its source and quality.

Nice article, I, too, hadn't noticed the change in scale just by panning around.

The Google LatLong blog (http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/) is packed with information related to Google Maps, and the maps API Google Group also is.

There's lots of talk about the Mercator projection on the list, tradeoffs, pros, cons, etc. So there really was no need to read the obfuscated code. Also, I'm not sure if "ease of implementation" was really what had them choose this projection, so it wouldn't hurt to dig around a little bit more before saying stuff like that, I think.

Still, pretty good stuff for people that want to know a bit more about how Google Maps work.

That photo was taken in the small bavarian village Oberstaufen (pop. 7,000). Their marketing people invited Google (and baked cake for them [0]) when the debate about Street View was heating up in Germany. As a consequence Oberstaufen was the only town or village you could visit on Google Street View two weeks before the service launched with all the major cities. Suffice it to say, Oberstaufen received tons of free media coverage because of that.

I think that’s a pretty genius move of the marketing people in a small village in a tourism region.

[0] http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/11/special-preview-of-beautiful-germany-in.html

""So how does it work? When you activate the My Location feature, Google Maps asks your web browser for your location. Typically, your browser uses information about the Wi-Fi access points around you to estimate your location. If no Wi-Fi access points are in range, or your computer doesn't have Wi-Fi, it may resort to using your computer's IP address to get an approximate location. As you'd expect, the accuracy of My Location varies with your location, and in some cases, Google Maps may not be able to provide a location at all.""

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/07/blue-circle-comes-to-your-desktop.html

What has happened to Google's LatLong blog (linked in the story)?

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/09/helicopter-view-of-your-driving.html

Zero visible content with NoScript enabled. I have to enable not just blogspot.com but also something from blogblog.com . That's just [explicative] annoying.

EDIT: After enabling scripts from those domains and viewing the content, when I disable scripts and refresh, the content remains visible. In case anyone tries blocking scripts and finds "it works for me".