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February 08, 2005
i've lost my sense of scale
"Some people lose their sense of proportion - I've lost my sense of scale." - Scale, Will Self
So Google Maps is rather spiffy - if your worldview is just the US, or you're a dreamer. Nicest things: speed, attention to detail, free text search entry (which screams for a multi-modal voice interface), shadows (all in pretty html).
What it lacks, like so many other online maps, is scale. It does perspective pretty well - you can zoom and pan easily, and clicking on points brings up a neat little full-zoom street map. But neither map has a scale; is it 200 yards or 200 miles? On-screen maps always give tunnel vision, so scale becomes even more neccessary than on paper.
Anyway, congrats to Google for taking the next leap forward in UIs for location based services. It shows how momentum for these things build up, service by service, layer by layer. I guess integration of a9-style photography is the next step. And, please, give us Europeans a bit of that location based love!
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» Google maps from KyleM.xwell
Google announced today the availability of Google Maps, still in beta, but already way cooler than Mapquest or Mappoint or any of the others. I particularly like the way the map pans when you modify the search, and the cast shadows are a nice touch. The m
more | February 9, 2005 03:40 AM
