Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 29, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The map service of search engine provider Google http://maps.google.com has a new function to offer. In place of the button for the hybrid view, a switch labelled „Terrain“ has been introduced. In this mode, Google Maps provides a terrain view including landscape information. The new function is aimed primarily at users who are interested in topographic map information.
„We saw that many users of Google Maps had created their own personalised maps with My Maps and KML in order to cast their surroundings and the entire planet in a new light for other people,“ write Google software engineers Chris Pennock and Keith Ito, who are responsible for the new feature, in the official blog on Google Earth and Google Maps. „This produced photo series of mountain bike tours as well as a journey across the mountain peaks of this world. The new terrain mode focuses its viewpoint on landscape features we mountains, valleys and vegetation,“ according to the software technicians.
Compared with satellite images, the new view gives a better impression of how high individual mountains are in comparison with their surroundings, for example. The differences in elevation are indicated with the help of shadows and colours. According to Pennock and Ito, the terrain view is intended to be used for planning hikes or bicycle tours. At present, however, the user cannot zoom as deeply with the terrain view as with the pure map view. The material for this is currently too low in resolution. Additional information such as details of elevation above sea level is also still missing for sensible use for the intended purpose.
The old hybrid view has been retained and has now been combined with the switch for the satellite image. By ticking the “Show labels” box, the overlay of satellite images with the road map can be switched on and off. In addition to the main US portal of the map service, the new terrain mode has also already been integrated into the local presences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Relevant innovations would immediately flow into the local presences at Google Maps, responsible product manager Christoph Oehler explained to pressetext. The portals for the two Alpine countries were only recently launched.
