

Google Maps now uses vectors (not tiles), allows rotation, 3-D, faster loading - motti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=koIzhLaRJJo#t=101s

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motti
Actual original source: [http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20101206/googles-
andy-rubin-...](http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20101206/googles-andy-rubin-
dives-into-android/)

This change is mainly to benefit mobiles, and is introduced in the context of
the Motorola Android tablet.

I imagine (and Andy Rubin says this too) that this will gradually make it to
the desktop/web version of Google Maps especially for those browsers that
support WebGL or SVG. If so, this would mean API changes to support all the
new viewing aspects etc, and hopefully rich support for addressing individual
map artefacts in vector form.

This negates OpenStreetMap's main selling point which, for me, was that it
uses vector data. That said, it may allow better comparisons between mapping
service's data as vector data can be compared far more accurately and
efficiently than bitmap tiles.

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tyneman
How long before Google Maps subsumes Google Earth? The browser is capable of
incredible things.

