Google Maps: A piece of internet history turns 20

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Google Maps started out in 2005 as a simple map view of the USA for desktop PCs, and within a few years developed into a comprehensive navigation tool that influenced the history of the internet and smartphones. Over the years, many functions such as information on the current traffic situation, Street View and fuel-saving routes were added. Google Maps was also the inspiration for alternative navigation apps such as Waze, HereWeGo and Apple Maps. To mark the 20th anniversary, we take a look at the most important developments and advantages of the world's most widely used navigation app.

The all-in-one solution

Google Maps combines the applications that, in the early days of the internet, required the use of devices apart from smartphones or additional websites. Route planning and navigation replaced the GPS-based navigation devices that became popular in the early 2000s. “My Business” replaced the Yellow Pages and Yelp to some extent with its ratings and opening hours of businesses. And information on places of interest makes a paper travel guide superfluous.

Almost, no matter where you are in the world, as long as you have a working internet connection, you can use Google Maps to discover almost anything and experience different things. The application thus offers a breadth of possibilities that is difficult for other competitors to match, which is of course also due to the immense resources that Google can invest in the project due to its size.

It doesn't work without account changes

Google Maps has also experienced a few controversies over the past twenty years. In 2010, for example, a Nicaraguan military commander moved troops to a lake called San Juan, which he believed belonged to his country, based on the border drawn on Maps. In reality, the area belonged to Costa Rica and an invasion was immediately feared. This almost led to a crisis in the region.

In the same year, the Cambodian government also complained that its country's border with Thailand had been incorrectly indicated. In response, Google promised to check the borders of over 60 countries and regions.

Elsewhere, Google faced criticism when algorithms and artificial intelligence were supposed to remove fake reviews, but some legitimate reviews were also filtered out. On the other hand, according to business owners, it was also too easy to write negative reviews and too difficult to remove them if they were unfounded.

The development into the app we know today

Just one year and two months after its release in the USA on February 8, 2005, Google Maps was also launched in Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. This was the start of a worldwide campaign. Today, Google has mapped over 250 countries and included them in its offering.

Just over a year later, on May 29, 2007, the “Street View” feature was launched. Amusingly, according to Google, snowmobiles, camels and even scout groups were also used to add hard-to-reach places to the service.

In the same year, the first mobile version of Google Maps was launched on the market. Initially for the then popular Blackberry and Palm devices, the application was then also available for Android in 2008 and for IOS from 2012.

At the end of 2009, navigation as we know it today was integrated into Maps, creating the basis for a fully-fledged navigation system, which was then also implemented on smartphones in 2013. This was followed in 2012 by the integration of train timetables, and in 2013 it became possible to plan cycle routes in Germany for the first time.

In addition to other small functions, “My Business”, which was launched in mid-2014 and combines opening hours, reviews and images of stores with Maps, is a decisive further development. The last major expansion of the range of functions to date was the integration of the in-house AI Gemini in fall 2024.

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Google Maps wird 20 Jahre alt (7 Bilder)

(tlz)