Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, air (in beta) and public transportation. In 2020, Google Maps was used by over 1 billion people every month.Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application. After additional acquisitions of a geospatial data visualization company and a real time traffic analyzer, Google Maps was launched in February 2005. The service's front end utilizes JavaScript, XML, and Ajax. Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites, and offers a locator for businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Map Maker allowed users to collaboratively expand and update the service's mapping worldwide but was discontinued from March 2017. However, crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps were not discontinued as the company announced those features would be transferred to the Google Local Guides program.&nbsp;Google Maps' satellite view is a "top-down" or bird's-eye view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other imagery is from satellites. Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis. Google Maps previously used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles. In August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe. It is still possible to switch back to the 2D map in the settings.&nbsp;Google Maps for Android and iOS devices was released in September 2008 and features GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. In August 2013, it was determined to be the world's most popular app for smartphones, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it at least once.&nbsp;In 2012, Google reported having over 7,100 employees and contractors directly working in mapping.In May 2017, the app has reported to have 2 billion users on Android, along with several other Google services including <a href="https://trifand.com/subject/youtube">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://trifand.com/subject/chrome">Chrome</a>, <a href="https://trifand.com/subject/gmail">Gmail</a>, <a href="https://trifand.com/subject/google-search">Search</a>, and <a href="https://trifand.com/subject/google-play">Google Play</a>, Google Maps reached over 1 billion monthly users.&nbsp; Resource: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps">Wikipedia</a>

Google Maps

Sometimes you want to go off the grid, or as off the grid as you can be with a GPS navigation system. Much like the Chrome browser, Google Maps does have an incognito mode that lets you get around without saving any details about where you’ve been.&nbsp;Bring up the menu by tapping your profile picture in the top right, and you’ll see “Incognito Mode” at the very top of the list. Just tap it and you’re good to go.Should you ever want to switch it off, do the same again and hit the big button that says “Turn off Incognito Mode".