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From AR navigation to professional posts and reviews, Google Maps really is a platform. Today’s latest update is focused on improving the visual quality and detail of the default layer – especially for nature – in Google Maps.
Original 08/18/20: The service now has three types of maps: by default, satellite and terrain. Google is now using a “new algorithmic color mapping technique” to translate its existing high-definition satellite images into the base map. Behind the scenes, Google used computer vision to identify natural features – arid, icy, forested and mountainous regions – and then color them.
Exploring a place gives you a glimpse of its natural features, so that you can easily distinguish tan, barren beaches and deserts from blue lakes, rivers, oceans and ravines. You can tell at a glance how lush and green a place is with vegetation, and even see if there are snow caps on the mountain peaks.
For example, a densely covered forest will be dark green, but an “patch of patchy shrubs” will be a lighter shade. To fully view and appreciate, zoom out on a location.
This process has been applied to all 220 countries and territories – over 100 million square kilometers of land, with Google touting Maps as providing “the most comprehensive views of natural features across all major mapping applications.”
In addition to natural features, Google Maps will soon add “highly detailed street information that indicates the precise shape and width of a road to scale.”
You can also see exactly where sidewalks, crosswalks and pedestrian islands are located – crucial information if you have accessibility needs, like wheelchairs or strollers.
This will appear in London, New York and San Francisco over the “next few months” and then expand to other cities.
Update 01/16/21: Google widely deploys these more detailed maps. If you don’t see crosswalks and other granular road features, try changing (via Android Police) Google Accounts. In addition to the three cities announced at launch, central Tokyo gets the same treatment across mobile and web apps.
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