NDM Post 48

Google Maps: a decade of transforming the mapping landscape

10 years ago people would have to typing a postcode into Multimap, printing out step-by-step instructions and then enduring amateur navigation from your partner in the passenger seat or find their way using a book. Google Maps have become the de facto interface between the the physical and the digital world. This article displays the vast difference the internet has had on maps and conveniences by enabling applications to be used everywhere.

While Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s nascent world wide web supported the first online maps in 1993

In 2004, Danish brothers Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen went to Google with an idea for a web app that would not only display static maps, but provide people with a searchable, scrollable, zoomable map.