Google Maps has introduced a redesign that allows users to provide a more detailed, colorful map. With the changes, Google says the service will display more geography so users can distinguish between “tan, dry beaches and deserts of blue lakes, rivers, oceans and ravines.”
In a blog post, Google explained just how comprehensive today’s update is:
With this update, Google Maps has one of the most comprehensive views of natural features of any major map app – with availability in all 220 countries and territories that Google Maps supports. That is coverage for more than 100M square kilometers of land, than 18 billion football fields!
According to Google, the company used a new color-coding technique that could identify the planet’s varied topography, including arid, icy, wooded, and mountainous regions. These features are color assigned to the HSV color model, making it easy to distinguish between bushes, shrubs, and more.
They also embedded an album that showed the various views across places such as Iceland, Morocco, Mount Rainier National Park, Croatia, and Sedona, Arizona. Here’s it before and after viewing each location on Google Maps:
The Restoration not only deals with the splendor of earth’s natural wonders; the renewal is also seen in large, metropolitan areas and in small, rural towns. Today’s update also includes more detailed street information, including the “exact shape and width of a road to scale.” Google Maps users will also be able to see where sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and pedestrian islands are located, making it safer for people to travel in a city.
The new colorful representation for landscapes will appear in Maps for all users this week. Just zoom out to see the new styling. More detailed street maps, on the other hand, will be available in London, New York and San Francisco in the coming months, and will roll out to more cities along the way. Developers of Google Maps platform can also quickly apply this new styling to their own maps.
