Freshness, Breadth, and Innovation

Google Maps have always been the leader in mapping innovation. We were the first to introduce draggable maps and the first to include satellite imagery. Through our acquisition of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery, street-level imagery, 3D buildings, and terrain, we are building the digital atlas for the 21st century. We are continually adding to this database, increasing the coverage, quality, and resolution of our maps and imagery at a rate that is unprecedented in the industry. With our Street View imagery, we allow our users to get down to streel level and see what a place looks like as if they were walking on the street. Explore high resolution satellite imagery of Dubai’s Palm Islands, or Street View imagery of New York Times Square.

We have also taken driving directions to a whole new level by allowing users to drag a route in real-time through any intermediate waypoint. Create customizable, draggable, multipoint driving directions – San Francisco to LA to San Diego, via Highway 1. You can drag & drop the route to customize, or right-click to add more destinations.

While Google Maps is the #1 mapping destination site globally, we also make most of the features and data accessible from maps.google.com available to our Maps API developers. Tens of thousands of web developers have taken advantage of this to create unique mapping websites. We also allow developer to bring their website to maps.google.com by creating a Mapplet, which is a javascript-based map plug-in which can be searched and viewed within Google Maps. You can see how Lonely Planet uses our Maps API to share information between travelers ; or watch the precision of Swiss trains in real time.

Happy Mapping!

Maps Guide Jade