Google Maps is no longer #flatearth

by Ulancer Contributor
In Startups
— 3 Aug, 2018

On flat maps, it’s impossible to represent land mass size on a relative scale. Objects in the north and south become distorted as the flat map compensates for the flattening of the globe. This is most evident in the commonly used Mercator projections that properly represents the size of land around the equator but super-sizes land in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Now, when Google Maps is used on Desktop, users will see the appropriate size of land masses. The update is great but I have yet to find the giant ice wall that’s preventing all of life from sliding off the side of the flat earth and onto the back of the giant turtle we’re riding through the vast emptiness of space.

n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”

Go to Google Maps and zoom out. Halfway out, the map’s perspective changes from a traditional flat map view to an interactive globe. Zoom all the way out and the Earth is presented as a globe with landmasses of the appropriate size. Greenland is no longer the size of Africa and all is right with […]n”,”protected”:false},”author”:24986667,”featured_media”:1685565,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”closed”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:{“outcome”:””,”status”:””,”crunchbase_tag”:0,”amp_status”:””,”relegenceEntities”:[],”relegenceSubjects”:[]},”categories”:[20429],”tags”:[81,51334],”crunchbase_tag”:[],”tc_stories_tax”:[],”tc_event”:[],”shortlink”:”https://tcrn.ch/2veZ6pM”,”rapidData”:{“pt”:””,”pct”:””},”featured”:false,”subtitle”:””,”fundingRound”:false,”seoTitle”:””,”seoDescription”:””,”tc_unified_tagging”:[{“tag”:{“term_id”:81,”name”:”Google”,”slug”:”google”,”term_group”:0,”term_taxonomy_id”:295,”taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”description”:””,”parent”:0,”count”:8885,”filter”:”raw”},”cb_tags”:[{“google-organization”:”Google”}]},{“tag”:{“term_id”:51334,”name”:”Google-Maps”,”slug”:”google-maps”,”term_group”:0,”term_taxonomy_id”:6159,”taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”description”:””,”parent”:0,”count”:289,”filter”:”raw”},”cb_tags”:[]}],”associatedEvent”:null,”event”:null,”authors”:[24986667],”hideFeaturedImage”:false,”relatedArticles”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”version-history”:[{“count”:4,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547/revisions”}],”predecessor-version”:[{“id”:1685706,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547/revisions/1685706″}],”authors”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/tc/v1/users/24986667″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”count”:3,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1685547&order=asc&tc_hierarchical=flat”}],”https://techcrunch.com/edit”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1685547&action=edit”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/tc/v1/users/24986667″}],”wp:featuredmedia”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1685565″}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=1685547″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=1685547″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=1685547″},{“taxonomy”:”_tc_cb_tag_taxonomy”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/crunchbase_tag?post=1685547″},{“taxonomy”:”tc_stories_tax”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tc_stories_tax?post=1685547″},{“taxonomy”:”tc_event”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tc_event?post=1685547″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]},”_embedded”:{“authors”:[{“id”:24986667,”name”:”Matt Burns”,”url”:””,”description”:””,”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/author/matt-burns/”,”slug”:”matt-burns”,”avatar_urls”:{“24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”},”links”:{“twitter”:”https://twitter.com/mjburnsy”,”linkedin”:”https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjburnsy”,”crunchbase”:”https://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-burns”},”position”:”Senior Editor”,”cbDescription”:”

Matt is a Managing Editor at TechCrunch.nn

He started at TechCrunch as a freelance writer in 2008 and moved up the ranks to become the Managing Editor in early 2017. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, he has a special place in his heart for mobility startups and gadgets.nn

At TechCrunch he manages the editorial side of the company’s events including TechCrunch Disrupt, TechCrunch Sessions and the company’s various worldwide events. Previously he was a freelance writer at Engadget and EngadgetHD where he hosted podcasts until he was removed from that role after saying a swear word. He’s very sorry and promises it won’t happen again.nn

When you zoom out to a certain level you get a selector to connect to other solar system maps.. Very cooln”},”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/03/google-maps-is-no-longer-flatearth/#comment-610747″,”type”:”comment”,”author_avatar_urls”:{“24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/26f386c704219d66ee1136b58a4def74?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/26f386c704219d66ee1136b58a4def74?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/26f386c704219d66ee1136b58a4def74?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”},”techcrunch”:{“avatar”:”https://ct.yimg.com/cy/1768/39361574426_98028a_64sq.jpg”,”company”:”(no company found)”,”title”:”(no title found)”,”user”:”RXJX5QO4P46WOU2C6KWXI3NQAL”},”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments/610747″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments”}],”up”:[{“embeddable”:true,”post_type”:”post”,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547″}]}},{“id”:610748,”parent”:0,”author”:0,”author_name”:”Sander Steffann”,”author_url”:””,”date”:”2018-08-03T10:13:50″,”content”:{“rendered”:”

Thanks for the turtle reference right at the start of the Discworld Convention ud83dude09n”},”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/03/google-maps-is-no-longer-flatearth/#comment-610748″,”type”:”comment”,”author_avatar_urls”:{“24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dee82a22b9a73f459fe180128811e4c1?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dee82a22b9a73f459fe180128811e4c1?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dee82a22b9a73f459fe180128811e4c1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”},”techcrunch”:{“avatar”:”https://ct.yimg.com/cy/1768/39361574426_98028a_64sq.jpg”,”company”:”(no company found)”,”title”:”(no title found)”,”user”:”QGTBFMIC5UFSWDEWB44D7VXW7D”},”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments/610748″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments”}],”up”:[{“embeddable”:true,”post_type”:”post”,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547″}]}},{“id”:610750,”parent”:0,”author”:0,”author_name”:”James Williams”,”author_url”:””,”date”:”2018-08-03T10:39:05″,”content”:{“rendered”:”

Google Maps ATE Google Earth!n”},”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/03/google-maps-is-no-longer-flatearth/#comment-610750″,”type”:”comment”,”author_avatar_urls”:{“24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f3ca915eec5259fb5f6d6108f9fd73bc?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f3ca915eec5259fb5f6d6108f9fd73bc?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f3ca915eec5259fb5f6d6108f9fd73bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”},”techcrunch”:{“avatar”:”https://ct.yimg.com/cy/1768/39361574426_98028a_64sq.jpg”,”company”:”(no company found)”,”title”:”(no title found)”,”user”:”GZCMRAUVUPZ6TSWXVQUARWUEEX”},”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments/610750″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments”}],”up”:[{“embeddable”:true,”post_type”:”post”,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1685547″}]}}]],”author”:[{“id”:24986667,”name”:”Matt Burns”,”url”:””,”description”:””,”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/author/matt-burns/”,”slug”:”matt-burns”,”avatar_urls”:{“24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c921fdee122025b0436360dc6bb7322d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”},”links”:{“twitter”:”https://twitter.com/mjburnsy”,”linkedin”:”https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjburnsy”,”crunchbase”:”https://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-burns”},”position”:”Senior Editor”,”cbDescription”:”

Matt is a Managing Editor at TechCrunch.nn

His passions include emails, run-on sentences and following through with action items developed during a conference call. 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