Happy birthday! Google Maps revolutionized navigation 15 years ago

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member
The big picture: Google is celebrating the 15th anniversary of one of its biggest undertakings ever – mapping the entire world. It's wild to think that not all that long ago, we were still using paper maps to get from point A to B. My, how time flies!

The search giant announced Google Maps on its official blog way back on February 8, 2005.

At the time, product manager Bret Taylor suggested looking for “hotels near LAX” with Maps or clicking and dragging the map to “view the adjacent area dynamically” with no waiting for new images to download.

The Internet was still instrumental in providing directions before smartphones were ubiquitous, just in a different way. Back then, it wasn’t uncommon to use an online service like MapQuest to map out your route ahead of time, complete with turn-by-turn directions, and print them out to take along with you.

Of course, these directions were static so if you veered off course, your printed route didn’t update itself like today’s digital maps do.

Before the Internet, it was even more archaic, as you had to reply on paper maps or an atlas that was often outdated. There were no turn-by-turn directions, either; you actually had to know how to read a map and get yourself to your destination on your own. Oh, the horror!

These days, Google Maps is the most popular navigation app in the US by a wide margin.

Competitors like Apple Maps and Waze have obtained some market share but Google is by far the leader. Heck, I can’t even think of the last time I saw a printed travel map for sale in a gas station but they are apparently still in print.

Image credit: Google Maps by AngieYeoh. Vintage map by Triff.

Permalink to story.

 
Oh how time flies! 14 years ago I was living in Singapore and I had a mapbook with detailed public bus service in each bus station. back then some of the bus stations had no bus directory so that mapbook was helpful for me.

I scanned some of the pages and put it on my Sony Ericsson phone so I could "navigate" the city easily using the public bus service.

kids nowadays probably didn't realize how difficult it was to navigate a foreign country without Google Maps or Waze.
 
Waze has market share? Uhm, it's owned by Google, so even if it does have market share, that's all Google.
 
Google maps is great, but on super long trips, something that may cover a few states or more I still run a separate gps in the car with my phone, google maps has a tendency to panic with any type of traffic jam and wants to reroute even if its not needed.
 
Back