Google Maps has already changed the way we view the world, giving us access to more places than we would have ever had in the past and allowing us to both explore and navigate our way through most of the world if we so choose. It’s about to get a redesign that will highlight and distinguish natural features more than ever and give us an even better perspective of what places truly look like from afar.
Whether its dense forests, deserts, beaches or even mountainous ice caps, Google hopes to highlight all those details more, while even giving attention to showcasing more details at a street level too. According to Google (as reported by The Verge), they have made use of new satellite imagery as the basis for their redesigned maps which have had a new” colour-mapping algorithmic technique” applied to them. As can be seen in the differences from some of these below sample maps, with the more colourful newer maps compared to the single-toned older maps.
However, the company is working on even changing things at a street level, where features like roadways, sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian islands will soon be distinguished as well. Google says the new design shows the shape and width of any given road “to scale.” Only major metropolises will have these details added in for now, but the company is hoping to bring more of this functionality to all areas in the future.
These are minor changes to the map designs, but the enhancements to the street details, in particular, should provide a lot more context to a person’s environment when navigating or travelling to new areas. Something which we hope to be able to do one day again in the future.
Last Updated: August 20, 2020
