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Search engine from Google

"Google.com" redirects here. For the company itself, see Google.

 

Google Search

Google Search on desktop
Type of site	Web search engine
Available in	149 languages
Owner	Google
Revenue	Google Ads
URL	google.com
IPv6 support	Yes[1]
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional
Launched	1995; 30 years ago (1995) (first prototype) 1997; 28 years ago (1997) (final launch)
Current status	Online
Written in	Python C C++[2]

Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites based on their relevance to the search query. It is the most popular search engine worldwide.

Google Search is the most-visited website in the world. As of 2020, Google Search has a 92% share of the global search engine market.^[3] Approximately 26.75% of Google's monthly global traffic comes from the United States, 4.44% from India, 4.4% from Brazil, 3.92% from the United Kingdom and 3.84% from Japan according to data provided by Similarweb.^[4]

The order of search results returned by Google is based, in part, on a priority rank system called "PageRank". Google Search also provides many different options for customized searches, using symbols to include, exclude, specify or require certain search behavior, and offers specialized interactive experiences, such as flight status and package tracking, weather forecasts, currency, unit, and time conversions, word definitions, and more.

The main purpose of Google Search is to search for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as images or data contained in databases. It was originally developed in 1996 by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Scott Hassan.^[5][6][7] The search engine would also be set up in the garage of Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park home.^[8] In 2011, Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for spoken, rather than typed, words.^[9] In 2012, Google introduced a semantic search feature named Knowledge Graph.

Analysis of the frequency of search terms may indicate economic, social and health trends.^[10] Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google can be openly inquired via Google Trends and have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels, and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and surveys. As of mid-2016, Google's search engine has begun to rely on deep neural networks.^[11]

In August 2024, a US judge in Virginia ruled that Google's search engine held an illegal monopoly over Internet search.^[12][13] The court found that Google maintained its market dominance by paying large amounts to phone-makers and browser-developers to make Google its default search engine.^[13]

Search indexing

[edit]

Google indexes hundreds of terabytes of information from web pages.^[14] For websites that are currently down or otherwise not available, Google provides links to cached versions of the site, formed by the search engine's latest indexing of that page.^[15] Additionally, Google indexes some file types, being able to show users PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, certain Flash multimedia content, and plain text files.^[16] Users can also activate "SafeSearch", a filtering technology aimed at preventing explicit and pornographic content from appearing in search results.^[17]

Despite Google search's immense index, sources generally assume that Google is only indexing less than 5% of the total Internet, with the rest belonging to the deep web, inaccessible through its search tools.^[14][18][19]

In 2012, Google changed its search indexing tools to demote sites that had been accused of piracy.^[20] In October 2016, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst with Google, announced that the search engine would be making a separate, primary web index dedicated for mobile devices, with a secondary, less up-to-date index for desktop use. The change was a response to the continued growth in mobile usage, and a push for web developers to adopt a mobile-friendly version of their websites.^[21][22] In December 2017, Google began rolling out the change, having already done so for multiple websites.^[23]

In August 2009, Google invited web developers to test a new search architecture, codenamed "Caffeine", and give their feedback. The new architecture provided no visual differences in the user interface, but added significant speed improvements and a new "under-the-hood" indexing infrastructure. The move was interpreted in some quarters as a response to Microsoft's recent release of an upgraded version of its own search service, renamed Bing, as well as the launch of Wolfram Alpha, a new search engine based on "computational knowledge".^[24][25] Google announced completion of "Caffeine" on June 8, 2010, claiming 50% fresher results due to continuous updating of its index.^[26]

With "Caffeine", Google moved its back-end indexing system away from MapReduce and onto Bigtable, the company's distributed database platform.^[27][28]

In August 2018, Danny Sullivan from Google announced a broad core algorithm update. As per current analysis done by the industry leaders Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land, the update was to drop down the medical and health-related websites that were not user friendly and were not providing good user experience. This is why the industry experts named it "Medic".^[29]

Google reserves very high standards for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages. This is because misinformation can affect users financially, physically, or emotionally. Therefore, the update targeted particularly those YMYL pages that have low-quality content and misinformation. This resulted in the algorithm targeting health and medical-related websites more than others. However, many other websites from other industries were also negatively affected.^[30]

By 2012, it handled more than 3.5 billion searches per day.^[31] In 2013 the European Commission found that Google Search favored Google's own products, instead of the best result for consumers' needs.^[32] In February 2015 Google announced a major change to its mobile search algorithm which would favor mobile friendly over other websites. Nearly 60% of Google searches come from mobile phones. Google says it wants users to have access to premium quality websites. Those websites which lack a mobile-friendly interface would be ranked lower and it is expected that this update will cause a shake-up of ranks. Businesses who fail to update their websites accordingly could see a dip in their regular websites traffic.^[33]

Google's rise was largely due to a patented algorithm called PageRank which helps rank web pages that match a given search string.^[34] When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance. Other keyword-based methods to rank search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would check how often the search terms occurred in a page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page. The PageRank algorithm instead analyzes human-generated links assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are also important. The algorithm computes a recursive score for pages, based on the weighted sum of other pages linking to them. PageRank is thought to correlate well with human concepts of importance. In addition to PageRank, Google, over the years, has added many other secret criteria for determining the ranking of resulting pages. This is reported to comprise over 250 different indicators,^[35][36] the specifics of which are kept secret to avoid difficulties created by scammers and help Google maintain an edge over its competitors globally.

PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for RankDex, developed by Robin Li in 1996. Larry Page's patent for PageRank filed in 1998 includes a citation to Li's earlier patent. Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine Baidu in 2000.^[37][38]

In a potential hint of Google's future direction of their Search algorithm, Google's then chief executive Eric Schmidt, said in a 2007 interview with the Financial Times: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'".^[39] Schmidt reaffirmed this during a 2010 interview with The Wall Street Journal: "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."^[40]

Because Google is the most popular search engine, many webmasters attempt to influence their website's Google rankings. An industry of consultants has arisen to help websites increase their rankings on Google and other search engines. This field, called search engine optimization, attempts to discern patterns in search engine listings, and then develop a methodology for improving rankings to draw more searchers to their clients' sites. Search engine optimization encompasses both "on page" factors (like body copy, title elements, H1 heading elements and image alt attribute values) and Off Page Optimization factors (like anchor text and PageRank). The general idea is to affect Google's relevance algorithm by incorporating the keywords being targeted in various places "on page", in particular the title element and the body copy (note: the higher up in the page, presumably the better its keyword prominence and thus the ranking). Too many occurrences of the keyword, however, cause the page to look suspect to Google's spam checking algorithms. Google has published guidelines for website owners who would like to raise their rankings when using legitimate optimization consultants.^[41] It has been hypothesized, and, allegedly, is the opinion of the owner of one business about which there have been numerous complaints, that negative publicity, for example, numerous consumer complaints, may serve as well to elevate page rank on Google Search as favorable comments.^[42] The particular problem addressed in The New York Times article, which involved DecorMyEyes, was addressed shortly thereafter by an undisclosed fix in the Google algorithm. According to Google, it was not the frequently published consumer complaints about DecorMyEyes which resulted in the high ranking but mentions on news websites of events which affected the firm such as legal actions against it. Google Search Console helps to check for websites that use duplicate or copyright content.^[43]

In 2013, Google significantly upgraded its search algorithm with "Hummingbird". Its name was derived from the speed and accuracy of the hummingbird.^[44] The change was announced on September 26, 2013, having already been in use for a month.^[45] "Hummingbird" places greater emphasis on natural language queries, considering context and meaning over individual keywords.^[44] It also looks deeper at content on individual pages of a website, with improved ability to lead users directly to the most appropriate page rather than just a website's homepage.^[46] The upgrade marked the most significant change to Google search in years, with more "human" search interactions^[47] and a much heavier focus on conversation and meaning.^[44] Thus, web developers and writers were encouraged to optimize their sites with natural writing rather than forced keywords, and make effective use of technical web development for on-site navigation.^[48]

In 2023, drawing on internal Google documents disclosed as part of the United States v. Google LLC (2020) antitrust case, technology reporters claimed that Google Search was "bloated and overmonetized"^[49] and that the "semantic matching" of search queries put advertising profits before quality.^[50] Wired withdrew Megan Gray's piece after Google complained about alleged inaccuracies, while the author reiterated that «As stated in court, "A goal of Project Mercury was to increase commercial queries"».^[51]

In March 2024, Google announced a significant update to its core search algorithm and spam targeting, which is expected to wipe out 40 percent of all spam results.^[52] On March 20th, it was confirmed that the roll out of the spam update was complete.^[53]

On September 10, 2024, the European-based EU Court of Justice found that Google held an illegal monopoly with the way the company showed favoritism to its shopping search, and could not avoid paying €2.4 billion.^[54] The EU Court of Justice referred to Google's treatment of rival shopping searches as "discriminatory" and in violation of the Digital Markets Act.^[54]

At the top of the search page, the approximate result count and the response time two digits behind decimal is noted. Of search results, page titles and URLs, dates, and a preview text snippet for each result appears. Along with web search results, sections with images, news, and videos may appear.^[55] The length of the previewed text snipped was experimented with in 2015 and 2017.^[56][57]

"Universal search" was launched by Google on May 16, 2007, as an idea that merged the results from different kinds of search types into one. Prior to Universal search, a standard Google search would consist of links only to websites. Universal search, however, incorporates a wide variety of sources, including websites, news, pictures, maps, blogs, videos, and more, all shown on the same search results page.^[58][59] Marissa Mayer, then-vice president of search products and user experience, described the goal of Universal search as "we're attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results.^[60]

In June 2017, Google expanded its search results to cover available job listings. The data is aggregated from various major job boards and collected by analyzing company homepages. Initially only available in English, the feature aims to simplify finding jobs suitable for each user.^[61][62]

In May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing website microformats to populate search result pages with "Rich snippets". Such snippets include additional details about results, such as displaying reviews for restaurants and social media accounts for individuals.^[63]

In May 2016, Google expanded on the "Rich snippets" format to offer "Rich cards", which, similarly to snippets, display more information about results, but shows them at the top of the mobile website in a swipeable carousel-like format.^[64] Originally limited to movie and recipe websites in the United States only, the feature expanded to all countries globally in 2017.^[65]

The Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base used by Google to enhance its search engine's results with information gathered from a variety of sources.^[66] This information is presented to users in a box to the right of search results.^[67] Knowledge Graph boxes were added to Google's search engine in May 2012,^[66] starting in the United States, with international expansion by the end of the year.^[68] The information covered by the Knowledge Graph grew significantly after launch, tripling its original size within seven months,^[69] and being able to answer "roughly one-third" of the 100 billion monthly searches Google processed in May 2016.^[70] The information is often used as a spoken answer in Google Assistant^[71] and Google Home searches.^[72] The Knowledge Graph has been criticized for providing answers without source attribution.^[70]

A Google Knowledge Panel^[73] is a feature integrated into Google search engine result pages, designed to present a structured overview of entities such as individuals, organizations, locations, or objects directly within the search interface. This feature leverages data from Google's Knowledge Graph,^[74] a database that organizes and interconnects information about entities, enhancing the retrieval and presentation of relevant content to users.

The content within a Knowledge Panel^[75] is derived from various sources, including Wikipedia and other structured databases, ensuring that the information displayed is both accurate and contextually relevant. For instance, querying a well-known public figure may trigger a Knowledge Panel displaying essential details such as biographical information, birthdate, and links to social media profiles or official websites.

The primary objective of the Google Knowledge Panel is to provide users with immediate, factual answers, reducing the need for extensive navigation across multiple web pages.

In May 2017, Google enabled a new "Personal" tab in Google Search, letting users search for content in their Google accounts' various services, including email messages from Gmail and photos from Google Photos.^[76][77]

Google Discover, previously known as Google Feed, is a personalized stream of articles, videos, and other news-related content. The feed contains a "mix of cards" which show topics of interest based on users' interactions with Google, or topics they choose to follow directly.^[78] Cards include, "links to news stories, YouTube videos, sports scores, recipes, and other content based on what [Google] determined you're most likely to be interested in at that particular moment."^[78] Users can also tell Google they're not interested in certain topics to avoid seeing future updates.

Google Discover launched in December 2016^[79] and received a major update in July 2017.^[80] Another major update was released in September 2018, which renamed the app from Google Feed to Google Discover, updated the design, and adding more features.^[81]

Discover can be found on a tab in the Google app and by swiping left on the home screen of certain Android devices. As of 2019, Google will not allow political campaigns worldwide to target their advertisement to people to make them vote.^[82]

At the 2023 Google I/O event in May, Google unveiled Search Generative Experience (SGE), an experimental feature in Google Search available through Google Labs which produces AI-generated summaries in response to search prompts.^[83] This was part of Google's wider efforts to counter the unprecedented rise of generative AI technology, ushered by OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT, which sent Google executives to a panic due to its potential threat to Google Search.^[84] Google added the ability to generate images in October.^[85] At I/O in 2024, the feature was upgraded and renamed AI Overviews.^[86]

AI Overviews was rolled out to users in the United States in May 2024.^[86] The feature faced public criticism in the first weeks of its rollout after errors from the tool went viral online. These included results suggesting users add glue to pizza or eat rocks,^[87] or incorrectly claiming Barack Obama is Muslim.^[88] Google described these viral errors as "isolated examples", maintaining that most AI Overviews provide accurate information.^[87][89] Two weeks after the rollout of AI Overviews, Google made technical changes and scaled back the feature, pausing its use for some health-related queries and limiting its reliance on social media posts.^[90] Scientific American has criticised the system on environmental grounds, as such a search uses 30 times more energy than a conventional one.^[91] It has also been criticized for condensing information from various sources, making it less likely for people to view full articles and websites. When it was announced in May 2024, Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance was quoted as saying "This will be catastrophic to our traffic, as marketed by Google to further satisfy user queries, leaving even less incentive to click through so that we can monetize our content."^[92]

In August 2024, AI Overviews were rolled out in the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, with local language support.^[93] On October 28, 2024, AI Overviews was rolled out to 100 more countries, including Australia and New Zealand.^[94]

In March 2025, Google introduced an experimental "AI Mode" within its Search platform, enabling users to input complex, multi-part queries and receive comprehensive, AI-generated responses. This feature leverages Google's advanced Gemini 2.0 model, which enhances the system's reasoning capabilities and supports multimodal inputs, including text, images, and voice.

Initially, AI Mode is available to Google One AI Premium subscribers in the United States, who can access it through the Search Labs platform. This phased rollout allows Google to gather user feedback and refine the feature before a broader release.

The introduction of AI Mode reflects Google's ongoing efforts to integrate advanced AI technologies into its services, aiming to provide users with more intuitive and efficient search experiences.^[95][96]

In late June 2011, Google introduced a new look to the Google homepage in order to boost the use of the Google+ social tools.^[97]

One of the major changes was replacing the classic navigation bar with a black one. Google's digital creative director Chris Wiggins explains: "We're working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience, and over the next few months, you'll continue to see more updates to our look and feel."^[98] The new navigation bar has been negatively received by a vocal minority.^[99]

In November 2013, Google started testing yellow labels for advertisements displayed in search results, to improve user experience. The new labels, highlighted in yellow color, and aligned to the left of each sponsored link help users differentiate between organic and sponsored results.^[100]

On December 15, 2016, Google rolled out a new desktop search interface that mimics their modular mobile user interface. The mobile design consists of a tabular design that highlights search features in boxes. and works by imitating the desktop Knowledge Graph real estate, which appears in the right-hand rail of the search engine result page, these featured elements frequently feature Twitter carousels, People Also Search For, and Top Stories (vertical and horizontal design) modules. The Local Pack and Answer Box were two of the original features of the Google SERP that were primarily showcased in this manner, but this new layout creates a previously unseen level of design consistency for Google results.^[101]

Google offers a "Google Search" mobile app for Android and iOS devices.^[102] The mobile apps exclusively feature Google Discover and a "Collections" feature, in which the user can save for later perusal any type of search result like images, bookmarks or map locations into groups.^[103] Android devices were introduced to a preview of the feed, perceived as related to Google Now, in December 2016,^[104] while it was made official on both Android and iOS in July 2017.^[105][106]

In April 2016, Google updated its Search app on Android to feature "Trends"; search queries gaining popularity appeared in the autocomplete box along with normal query autocompletion.^[107] The update received significant backlash, due to encouraging search queries unrelated to users' interests or intentions, prompting the company to issue an update with an opt-out option.^[108] In September 2017, the Google Search app on iOS was updated to feature the same functionality.^[109]

In December 2017, Google released "Google Go", an app designed to enable use of Google Search on physically smaller and lower-spec devices in multiple languages. A Google blog post about designing "India-first" products and features explains that it is "tailor-made for the millions of people in [India and Indonesia] coming online for the first time".^[110]

Google Search consists of a series of localized websites. The largest of those, the google.com site, is the top most-visited website in the world.^[111] Some of its features include a definition link for most searches including dictionary words, the number of results you got on your search, links to other searches (e.g. for words that Google believes to be misspelled, it provides a link to the search results using its proposed spelling), the ability to filter results to a date range,^[112] and many more.

Google search accepts queries as normal text, as well as individual keywords.^[113] It automatically corrects apparent misspellings by default (while offering to use the original spelling as a selectable alternative), and provides the same results regardless of capitalization.^[113] For more customized results, one can use a wide variety of operators, including, but not limited to:^[114][115]

• OR or | – Search for webpages containing one of two similar queries, such as marathon OR race
• AND – Search for webpages containing two similar queries, such as marathon AND runner
• - (minus sign) – Exclude a word or a phrase, so that "apple -tree" searches where word "tree" is not used
• "" – Force inclusion of a word or a phrase, such as "tallest building"
• * – Placeholder symbol allowing for any substitute words in the context of the query, such as "largest * in the world"
• .. – Search within a range of numbers, such as "camera $50..$100"
• site: – Search within a specific website, such as "site:youtube.com"
• define: – Search for definitions for a word or phrase, such as "define:phrase"
• stocks: – See the stock price of investments, such as "stocks:googl"
• related: – Find web pages related to specific URL addresses, such as "related:www.wikipedia.org"
• cache: – Highlights the search-words within the cached pages, so that "cache:www.google.com xxx" shows cached content with word "xxx" highlighted.
• ( ) – Group operators and searches, such as (marathon OR race) AND shoes
• filetype: or ext: – Search for specific file types, such as filetype:gif
• before: – Search for before a specific date, such as spacex before:2020-08-11
• after: – Search for after a specific date, such as iphone after:2007-06-29
• @ – Search for a specific word on social media networks, such as "@twitter"

Google also offers a Google Advanced Search page with a web interface to access the advanced features without needing to remember the special operators.^[116]

Google applies query expansion to submitted search queries, using techniques to deliver results that it considers "smarter" than the query users actually submitted. This technique involves several steps, including:^[117]

• Word stemming – Certain words can be reduced so other, similar terms, are also found in results, so that "translator" can also search for "translation"
• Acronyms – Searching for abbreviations can also return results about the name in its full length, so that "NATO" can show results for "North Atlantic Treaty Organization"
• Misspellings – Google will often suggest correct spellings for misspelled words
• Synonyms – In most cases where a word is incorrectly used in a phrase or sentence, Google search will show results based on the correct synonym
• Translations – The search engine can, in some instances, suggest results for specific words in a different language
• Ignoring words – In some search queries containing extraneous or insignificant words, Google search will simply drop those specific words from the query

In 2008, Google started to give users autocompleted search suggestions in a list below the search bar while typing, originally with the approximate result count previewed for each listed search suggestion.^[118]

Google's homepage includes a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". This feature originally allowed users to type in their search query, click the button and be taken directly to the first result, bypassing the search results page. Clicking it while leaving the search box empty opens Google's archive of Doodles.^[119] With the 2010 announcement of Google Instant, an automatic feature that immediately displays relevant results as users are typing in their query, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button disappears, requiring that users opt-out of Instant results through search settings to keep using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" functionality.^[120] In 2012, "I'm Feeling Lucky" was changed to serve as an advertisement for Google services; users hover their computer mouse over the button, it spins and shows an emotion ("I'm Feeling Puzzled" or "I'm Feeling Trendy", for instance), and, when clicked, takes users to a Google service related to that emotion.^[121]

Tom Chavez of "Rapt", a firm helping to determine a website's advertising worth, estimated in 2007 that Google lost $110 million in revenue per year due to use of the button, which bypasses the advertisements found on the search results page.^[122]

Besides the main text-based search-engine function of Google search, it also offers multiple quick, interactive features. These include, but are not limited to:^{[123][124][125]}

• Calculator
• Time zone, currency, and unit conversions
• Word translations
• Flight status
• Local film showings
• Weather forecasts
• Population and unemployment rates
• Package tracking
• Word definitions
• Metronome
• Roll a die
• "Do a barrel roll" (search page spins)
• "Askew" (results show up sideways)

During Google's developer conference, Google I/O, in May 2013, the company announced that users on Google Chrome and ChromeOS would be able to have the browser initiate an audio-based search by saying "OK Google", with no button presses required. After having the answer presented, users can follow up with additional, contextual questions; an example include initially asking "OK Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend?", hearing a spoken answer, and reply with "how far is it from here?"^[126][127] An update to the Chrome browser with voice-search functionality rolled out a week later, though it required a button press on a microphone icon rather than "OK Google" voice activation.^[128] Google released a browser extension for the Chrome browser, named with a "beta" tag for unfinished development, shortly thereafter.^[129] In May 2014, the company officially added "OK Google" into the browser itself;^[130] they removed it in October 2015, citing low usage, though the microphone icon for activation remained available.^[131] In May 2016, 20% of search queries on mobile devices were done through voice.^[132]

Google Videos

Screenshot Google Videos homepage as of 2016
Type of site	Video search engine
Available in	Multilingual
Owner	Google
URL	www.google.com/videohp
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Recommended
Launched	August 20, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-08-20)

In addition to its tool for searching web pages, Google also provides services for searching images, Usenet newsgroups, news websites, videos (Google Videos), searching by locality, maps, and items for sale online. Google Videos allows searching the World Wide Web for video clips.^[133] The service evolved from Google Video, Google's discontinued video hosting service that also allowed to search the web for video clips.^[133]

In 2012, Google has indexed over 30 trillion web pages, and received 100 billion queries per month.^[134] It also caches much of the content that it indexes. Google operates other tools and services including Google News, Google Shopping, Google Maps, Google Custom Search, Google Earth, Google Docs, Picasa (discontinued), Panoramio (discontinued), YouTube, Google Translate, Google Blog Search and Google Desktop Search (discontinued^[135]).

There are also products available from Google that are not directly search-related. Gmail, for example, is a webmail application, but still includes search features; Google Browser Sync does not offer any search facilities, although it aims to organize your browsing time.

In 2009, Google claimed that a search query requires altogether about 1 kJ or 0.0003 kW·h,^[136] which is enough to raise the temperature of one liter of water by 0.24 °C. According to green search engine Ecosia, the industry standard for search engines is estimated to be about 0.2 grams of CO₂ emission per search.^[137] Google's 40,000 searches per second translate to 8 kg CO₂ per second or over 252 million kilos of CO₂ per year.^[138]

On certain occasions, the logo on Google's webpage will change to a special version, known as a "Google Doodle". This is a picture, drawing, animation, or interactive game that includes the logo. It is usually done for a special event or day although not all of them are well known.^[139] Clicking on the Doodle links to a string of Google search results about the topic. The first was a reference to the Burning Man Festival in 1998,^[140][141] and others have been produced for the birthdays of notable people like Albert Einstein, historical events like the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary and holidays like Valentine's Day.^[142] Some Google Doodles have interactivity beyond a simple search, such as the famous "Google Pac-Man" version that appeared on May 21, 2010.

Google has been criticized for placing long-term cookies on users' machines to store preferences, a tactic which also enables them to track a user's search terms and retain the data for more than a year.^[143]

Since 2012, Google Inc. has globally introduced encrypted connections for most of its clients, to bypass governative blockings of the commercial and IT services.^[144]

In 2003, The New York Times complained about Google's indexing, claiming that Google's caching of content on its site infringed its copyright for the content.^[145] In both Field v. Google and Parker v. Google, the United States District Court of Nevada ruled in favor of Google.^[146][147]

This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding to it . (May 2024)

A 2019 New York Times article on Google Search showed that images of child sexual abuse had been found on Google and that the company had been reluctant at times to remove them.^[148]

Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. For approximately 40 minutes on January 31, 2009, all search results were mistakenly classified as malware and could therefore not be clicked; instead a warning message was displayed and the user was required to enter the requested URL manually. The bug was caused by human error.^{[149][150][151][152]} The URL of "/" (which expands to all URLs) was mistakenly added to the malware patterns file.^[150][151]

In 2007, a group of researchers observed a tendency for users to rely exclusively on Google Search for finding information, writing that "With the Google interface the user gets the impression that the search results imply a kind of totality. ... In fact, one only sees a small part of what one could see if one also integrates other research tools."^[153]

In 2011, Google Search query results have been shown by Internet activist Eli Pariser to be tailored to users, effectively isolating users in what he defined as a filter bubble. Pariser holds algorithms used in search engines such as Google Search responsible for catering "a personal ecosystem of information".^[154] Although contrasting views have mitigated the potential threat of "informational dystopia" and questioned the scientific nature of Pariser's claims,^[155] filter bubbles have been mentioned to account for the surprising results of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 alongside fake news and echo chambers, suggesting that Facebook and Google have designed personalized online realities in which "we only see and hear what we like".^[156]

In 2012, the US Federal Trade Commission fined Google US$22.5 million for violating their agreement not to violate the privacy of users of Apple's Safari web browser.^[157] The FTC was also continuing to investigate if Google's favoring of their own services in their search results violated antitrust regulations.^[158]

In a November 2023 disclosure, during the ongoing antitrust trial against Google, an economics professor at the University of Chicago revealed that Google pays Apple 36% of all search advertising revenue generated when users access Google through the Safari browser. This revelation reportedly caused Google's lead attorney to cringe visibly.^{[citation needed]} The revenue generated from Safari users has been kept confidential, but the 36% figure suggests that it is likely in the tens of billions of dollars.

Both Apple and Google have argued that disclosing the specific terms of their search default agreement would harm their competitive positions. However, the court ruled that the information was relevant to the antitrust case and ordered its disclosure. This revelation has raised concerns about the dominance of Google in the search engine market and the potential anticompetitive effects of its agreements with Apple.^[159]

Google search engine robots are programmed to use algorithms that understand and predict human behavior. The book, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code^[160] by Ruha Benjamin talks about human bias as a behavior that the Google search engine can recognize. In 2016, some users Google searched "three Black teenagers" and images of criminal mugshots of young African American teenagers came up. Then, the users searched "three White teenagers" and were presented with photos of smiling, happy teenagers. They also searched for "three Asian teenagers", and very revealing photos of Asian girls and women appeared. Benjamin concluded that these results reflect human prejudice and views on different ethnic groups. A group of analysts explained the concept of a racist computer program: "The idea here is that computers, unlike people, can't be racist but we're increasingly learning that they do in fact take after their makers ... Some experts believe that this problem might stem from the hidden biases in the massive piles of data that the algorithms process as they learn to recognize patterns ... reproducing our worst values".^[160]

On August 5, 2024, Google lost a lawsuit which started in 2020 in D.C. Circuit Court, with Judge Amit Mehta finding that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search.^[161] This monopoly was held to be in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.^[162] Google has said it will appeal the ruling,^[163] though they did propose to loosen search deals with Apple and others requiring them to set Google as the default search engine.^[164]

As people talk about "googling" rather than searching, the company has taken some steps to defend its trademark, in an effort to prevent it from becoming a generic trademark.^[165][166] This has led to lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, and the use of euphemisms, such as calling Google Search a famous web search engine.^[167]

Until May 2013, Google Search had offered a feature to translate search queries into other languages. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that "Removing features is always tough, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Unfortunately, this feature never saw much pick up".^[168]

Instant search was announced in September 2010 as a feature that displayed suggested results while the user typed in their search query, initially only in select countries or to registered users.^[169] The primary advantage of the new system was its ability to save time, with Marissa Mayer, then-vice president of search products and user experience, proclaiming that the feature would save 2–5 seconds per search, elaborating that "That may not seem like a lot at first, but it adds up. With Google Instant, we estimate that we'll save our users 11 hours with each passing second!"^[170] Matt Van Wagner of Search Engine Land wrote that "Personally, I kind of like Google Instant and I think it represents a natural evolution in the way search works", and also praised Google's efforts in public relations, writing that "With just a press conference and a few well-placed interviews, Google has parlayed this relatively minor speed improvement into an attention-grabbing front-page news story".^[171] The upgrade also became notable for the company switching Google Search's underlying technology from HTML to AJAX.^[172]

Instant Search could be disabled via Google's "preferences" menu for those who didn't want its functionality.^[173]

The publication 2600: The Hacker Quarterly compiled a list of words that Google Instant did not show suggested results for, with a Google spokesperson giving the following statement to Mashable:^[174]

There are several reasons you may not be seeing search queries for a particular topic. Among other things, we apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech. It's important to note that removing queries from Autocomplete is a hard problem, and not as simple as blacklisting particular terms and phrases.

In search, we get more than one billion searches each day. Because of this, we take an algorithmic approach to removals, and just like our search algorithms, these are imperfect. We will continue to work to improve our approach to removals in Autocomplete, and are listening carefully to feedback from our users.

Our algorithms look not only at specific words, but compound queries based on those words, and across all languages. So, for example, if there's a bad word in Russian, we may remove a compound word including the transliteration of the Russian word into English. We also look at the search results themselves for given queries. So, for example, if the results for a particular query seem pornographic, our algorithms may remove that query from Autocomplete, even if the query itself wouldn't otherwise violate our policies. This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better.

PC Magazine discussed the inconsistency in how some forms of the same topic are allowed; for instance, "lesbian" was blocked, while "gay" was not, and "cocaine" was blocked, while "crack" and "heroin" were not. The report further stated that seemingly normal words were also blocked due to pornographic innuendos, most notably "scat", likely due to having two completely separate contextual meanings, one for music and one for a sexual practice.^[175]

On July 26, 2017, Google removed Instant results, due to a growing number of searches on mobile devices, where interaction with search, as well as screen sizes, differ significantly from a computer.^[176][177]

Instant previews[edit]

"Instant previews" allowed previewing screenshots of search results' web pages without having to open them. The feature was introduced in November 2010 to the desktop website and removed in April 2013 citing low usage.^[178][179]

Various search engines provide encrypted Web search facilities. In May 2010 Google rolled out SSL-encrypted web search.^[180] The encrypted search was accessed at encrypted.google.com^[181] However, the web search is encrypted via Transport Layer Security (TLS) by default today, thus every search request should be automatically encrypted if TLS is supported by the web browser.^[182] On its support website, Google announced that the address encrypted.google.com would be turned off April 30, 2018, stating that all Google products and most new browsers use HTTPS connections as the reason for the discontinuation.^[183]

Google Real-Time Search was a feature of Google Search in which search results also sometimes included real-time information from sources such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and news websites.^[184] The feature was introduced on December 7, 2009,^[185] and went offline on July 2, 2011, after the deal with Twitter expired.^[186] Real-Time Search included Facebook status updates beginning on February 24, 2010.^[187] A feature similar to Real-Time Search was already available on Microsoft's Bing search engine, which showed results from Twitter and Facebook.^[188] The interface for the engine showed a live, descending "river" of posts in the main region (which could be paused or resumed), while a bar chart metric of the frequency of posts containing a certain search term or hashtag was located on the right hand corner of the page above a list of most frequently reposted posts and outgoing links. Hashtag search links were also supported, as were "promoted" tweets hosted by Twitter (located persistently on top of the river) and thumbnails of retweeted image or video links.

In January 2011, geolocation links of posts were made available alongside results in Real-Time Search. In addition, posts containing syndicated or attached shortened links were made searchable by the link: query option. In July 2011, Real-Time Search became inaccessible, with the Real-Time link in the Google sidebar disappearing and a custom 404 error page generated by Google returned at its former URL. Google originally suggested that the interruption was temporary and related to the launch of Google+;^[189] they subsequently announced that it was due to the expiry of a commercial arrangement with Twitter to provide access to tweets.^[190]

• List of search engines by popularity – Software system for finding relevant information on the WebPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Timeline of Google Search
• Censorship by Google § Google Search
• Google (verb) – Transitive verb, to search using Google
• Dragonfly (search engine) – Prototype Internet search engine to comply with Chinese censorship requirements
• Google bombing – Practice that causes a webpage to have a high rank in Google
• Google Panda – Change to Google's search results ranking algorithm
• Google Penguin – Google search engine algorithm update
• Googlewhack – Contest to find a Google Search query that returns a single result
• Halalgoogling – Islamic search engine blocking haram content
• Prabhakar Raghavan – American computer scientist
• Reunion (advertisement) – Google India advertisement for Google SearchPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• List of search engines
• Comparison of web search engines
• History of Google
• List of Google products

• Official website
• Google Search home
• Google Trends home

Google's web mapping service (launched 2005)

 

This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. Please help rewrite or integrate negative information to other sections through discussion on the talk page. (June 2024)

Google Maps

Screenshot of Google Maps in a web browser
Type of site	Web mapping
Available in	74 languages
List of languages Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Indonesian, Malay, Bosnian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German (Germany), Estonian, English (United States), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Basque, Filipino, French (France), Galician, Croatian, Zulu, Icelandic, Italian, Swahili, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Dutch, Norwegian, Uzbek, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Albanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Macedonian, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Armenian, Hebrew, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Amharic, Nepali, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Khmer, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Owner	Google
URL	google.com/maps
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional, included with a Google Account
Launched	February 8, 2005; 20 years ago (2005-02-08)
Current status	Active
Written in	C++ (back-end), JavaScript, XML, Ajax (UI)

Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered 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, bike, air (in beta) and public transportation. As of 2020^[update], Google Maps was being used by over one billion people every month around the world.^[1]

Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen in Australia 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.^[2] 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,^[3] 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,^[4] although users that are not Local Guides can still contribute.

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.^[5] Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis, according to a 2011 report.^[6] Google Maps previously used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles.^[7] 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.

Google Maps for mobile devices was first released in 2006; the latest versions feature GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. By 2013, it was found to be the world's most popular smartphone app, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it.^[8] In 2017, the app was reported to have two billion users on Android, along with several other Google services including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Google Play.

History

[edit]

Acquisitions

[edit]

Google Maps first started as a C++ program designed by two Danish brothers, Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen, and Noel Gordon and Stephen Ma, at the Sydney-based company Where 2 Technologies, which was founded in early 2003. The program was initially designed to be separately downloaded by users, but the company later pitched the idea for a purely Web-based product to Google management, changing the method of distribution.^[9] In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google Inc.^[10] where it transformed into the web application Google Maps. The Rasmussen brothers, Gordon and Ma joined Google at that time.

In the same month, Google acquired Keyhole, a geospatial data visualization company (with investment from the CIA), whose marquee application suite, Earth Viewer, emerged as the Google Earth application in 2005 while other aspects of its core technology were integrated into Google Maps.^[11] In September 2004, Google acquired ZipDash, a company that provided real-time traffic analysis.^[12]

2005–2010

[edit]

The launch of Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005.^[13]

In September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Maps quickly updated its satellite imagery of New Orleans to allow users to view the extent of the flooding in various parts of that city.^[14][15]

As of 2007, Google Maps was equipped with a miniature view with a draggable rectangle that denotes the area shown in the main viewport, and "Info windows" for previewing details about locations on maps.^[16] As of 2024, this feature had been removed (likely several years prior).

On November 28, 2007, Google Maps for Mobile 2.0 was released.^[17][18][19] It featured a beta version of a "My Location" feature, which uses the GPS / Assisted GPS location of the mobile device, if available, supplemented by determining the nearest wireless networks and cell sites.^[18][19] The software looks up the location of the cell site using a database of known wireless networks and sites.^[20][21] By triangulating the different signal strengths from cell transmitters and then using their location property (retrieved from the database), My Location determines the user's current location.^[22]

On September 23, 2008, coinciding with the announcement of the first commercial Android device, Google announced that a Google Maps app had been released for its Android operating system.^[23][24]

In October 2009, Google replaced Tele Atlas as their primary supplier of geospatial data in the US version of Maps and used their own data.^[25]

2011–2015

[edit]

On April 19, 2011, Map Maker was added to the American version of Google Maps, allowing any viewer to edit and add changes to Google Maps. This provides Google with local map updates almost in real-time instead of waiting for digital map data companies to release more infrequent updates.

On January 31, 2012, Google, due to offering its Maps for free, was found guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered by a court to pay a fine and damages to Bottin Cartographer, a French mapping company.^[26] This ruling was overturned on appeal.^[27]

In June 2012, Google started mapping the UK's rivers and canals in partnership with the Canal and River Trust. The company has stated that "it would update the program during the year to allow users to plan trips which include locks, bridges and towpaths along the 2,000 miles of river paths in the UK."^[28]

In December 2012, the Google Maps application was separately made available in the App Store, after Apple removed it from its default installation of the mobile operating system version iOS 6 in September 2012.^[29]

On January 29, 2013, Google Maps was updated to include a map of North Korea.^[30] As of May 3, 2013^[update], Google Maps recognizes Palestine as a country, instead of redirecting to the Palestinian territories.^[31]

In August 2013, Google Maps removed the Wikipedia Layer, which provided links to Wikipedia content about locations shown in Google Maps using Wikipedia geocodes.^[32]

On April 12, 2014, Google Maps was updated to reflect the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by Russia. Crimea is shown as the Republic of Crimea in Russia and as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine. All other versions show a dotted disputed border.^[33]

In April 2015, on a map near the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, the imagery of the Android logo urinating on the Apple logo was added via Map Maker and appeared on Google Maps. The vandalism was soon removed and Google publicly apologized.^[34] However, as a result, Google disabled user moderation on Map Maker, and on May 12, disabled editing worldwide until it could devise a new policy for approving edits and avoiding vandalism.^[35]

On April 29, 2015, users of the classic Google Maps were forwarded to the new Google Maps with the option to be removed from the interface.^[36]

On July 14, 2015, the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal was removed after a petition from the Philippines was posted on Change.org.^[37]

2016–2018

[edit]

On June 27, 2016, Google rolled out new satellite imagery worldwide sourced from Landsat 8, comprising over 700 trillion pixels of new data.^[38] In September 2016, Google Maps acquired mapping analytics startup Urban Engines.^[39]

In 2016, the Government of South Korea offered Google conditional access to the country's geographic database – access that already allows indigenous Korean mapping providers high-detail maps. Google declined the offer, as it was unwilling to accept restrictions on reducing the quality around locations the South Korean Government felt were sensitive (see restrictions on geographic data in South Korea).^[40]

On October 16, 2017, Google Maps was updated with accessible imagery of several planets and moons such as Titan, Mercury, and Venus, as well as direct access to imagery of the Moon and Mars.^[41][42]

In May 2018, Google announced major changes to the API structure starting June 11, 2018. This change consolidated the 18 different endpoints into three services and merged the basic and premium plans into one pay-as-you-go plan.^[43] This meant a 1400% price raise for users on the basic plan, with only six weeks of notice. This caused a harsh reaction within the developers community.^[44] In June, Google postponed the change date to July 16, 2018.

In August 2018, Google Maps designed its overall view (when zoomed out completely) into a 3D globe dropping the Mercator projection that projected the planet onto a flat surface.^[45]

2019–present

[edit]

In January 2019, Google Maps added speed trap and speed camera alerts as reported by other users.^[46][47]

On October 17, 2019, Google Maps was updated to include incident reporting, resembling a functionality in Waze which was acquired by Google in 2013.^[48]

In December 2019, Incognito mode was added, allowing users to enter destinations without saving entries to their Google accounts.^[49]

In February 2020, Maps received a 15th anniversary redesign.^[50] It notably added a brand-new app icon, which now resembles the original icon in 2005.

On September 23, 2020, Google announced a COVID-19 Layer update for Google maps, which is designed to offer a seven-day average data of the total COVID-19-positive cases per 100,000 people in the area selected on the map. It also features a label indicating the rise and fall in the number of cases.^[51]

In January 2021, Google announced that it would be launching a new feature displaying COVID-19 vaccination sites.^[52]

In January 2021, Google announced updates to the route planner that would accommodate drivers of electric vehicles. Routing would take into account the type of vehicle, vehicle status including current charge, and the locations of charging stations.^[53]

In June 2022, Google Maps added a layer displaying air quality for certain countries.^[54]

In September 2022, Google removed the COVID-19 Layer from Google Maps due to lack of usage of the feature.^[55]

Functionality

[edit]

Directions and transit

[edit]

Google Maps provides a route planner,^[56] allowing users to find available directions through driving, public transportation, walking, or biking.^[57] Google has partnered globally with over 800 public transportation providers to adopt GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification), making the data available to third parties.^[58][59] The app can indicate users' transit route, thanks to an October 2019 update. The incognito mode, eyes-free walking navigation features were released earlier.^[60] A July 2020 update provided bike share routes.^[61]

In February 2024, Google Maps started rolling out glanceable directions for its Android and iOS apps. The feature allows users to track their journey from their device's lock screen.^[62][63]

Traffic conditions

[edit]

In 2007, Google began offering traffic data as a colored overlay on top of roads and motorways to represent the speed of vehicles on particular roads. Crowdsourcing is used to obtain the GPS-determined locations of a large number of cellphone users, from which live traffic maps are produced.^[64][65][66]

Google has stated that the speed and location information it collects to calculate traffic conditions is anonymous.^[67] Options available in each phone's settings allow users not to share information about their location with Google Maps.^[68] Google stated, "Once you disable or opt out of My Location, Maps will not continue to send radio information back to Google servers to determine your handset's approximate location".^{[69][failed verification]}

Street View

[edit]

Main article: Google Street View

On May 25, 2007, Google released Google Street View, a feature of Google Maps providing 360° panoramic street-level views of various locations. On the date of release, the feature only included five cities in the U.S. It has since expanded to thousands of locations around the world. In July 2009, Google began mapping college campuses and surrounding paths and trails.

Street View garnered much controversy after its release because of privacy concerns about the uncensored nature of the panoramic photographs, although the views are only taken on public streets.^[70][71] Since then, Google has blurred faces and license plates through automated facial recognition.^[72][73][74]

In late 2014, Google launched Google Underwater Street View, including 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) of the Australian Great Barrier Reef in 3D. The images are taken by special cameras which turn 360 degrees and take shots every 3 seconds.^[75]

In 2017, in both Google Maps and Google Earth, Street View navigation of the International Space Station interior spaces became available.

3D imagery

[edit]

Google Maps has incorporated^[when?] 3D models of hundreds of cities in over 40 countries from Google Earth into its satellite view. The models were developed using aerial photogrammetry techniques.^[76][77]

At the I/O 2022 event, Google announced Immersive View, a feature of Google Maps which would involve composite 3D images generated from Street View and aerial images of locations using AI, complete with synchronous information. It was to be initially in five cities worldwide, with plans to add it to other cities later on.^[78] The feature was previewed in September 2022 with 250 photorealistic aerial 3D images of landmarks,^[79] and was full launched in February 2023.^[80] An expansion of Immersive View to routes was announced at Google I/O 2023,^[81] and was launched in October 2023 for 15 cities globally.^[82]

The feature uses predictive modelling and neural radiance fields to scan Street View and aerial images to generate composite 3D imagery of locations, including both exteriors and interiors, and routes, including driving, walking or cycling, as well as generate synchronous information and forecasts up to a month ahead from historical and environmental data about both such as weather, traffic and busyness.

Immersive View has been available in the following locations:^{[citation needed]}

Locations with Immersive View

Country	Locations
Argentina	Buenos Aires
Australia	Melbourne, Sydney
Austria	Vienna
Belgium	Brussels
Brazil	Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo
Canada	Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver
Chile	Santiago
Czech Republic	Prague
France	Nice, Paris
Germany	Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich
Greece	Athens
Hong Kong	Hong Kong
Hungary	Budapest
Italy	Florence, Milan, Rome, Venice
Japan	Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo
Mexico	Guadalajara, Mexico City
Netherlands	Amsterdam
Norway	Oslo
Poland	Warsaw
Portugal	Lisbon, Porto
Romania	Bucharest
Singapore	Singapore
South Africa	Cape Town, Johannesburg
Spain	Barcelona, Madrid
Sweden	Stockholm
Switzerland	Zurich
Taiwan	Taichung, Taipei
United Kingdom	Edinburgh, London
United States	Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle
Vatican City	Vatican City

Google added icons of city attractions, in a similar style to Apple Maps, on October 3, 2019. In the first stage, such icons were added to 9 cities.^[83]

In December 2009, Google introduced a new view consisting of 45° angle aerial imagery, offering a "bird's-eye view" of cities. The first cities available were San Jose and San Diego. This feature was initially available only to developers via the Google Maps API.^[84] In February 2010, it was introduced as an experimental feature in Google Maps Labs.^[85] In July 2010, 45° imagery was made available in Google Maps in select cities in South Africa, the United States, Germany and Italy.^[86]

In February 2024, Google Maps incorporated a small weather icon on the top left corner of the Android and iOS mobile apps, giving access to weather and air quality index details.^[87]

Previously called Search with Live View, Lens In Maps identifies shops, restaurants, transit stations and other street features with a phone's camera and places relevant information and a category pin on top, like closing/opening times, current busyness, pricing and reviews using AI and augmented reality. The feature, if available on the device, can be accessed through tapping the Lens icon in the search bar. It was expanded to 50 new cities in October 2023 in its biggest expansion yet, after initially being released in late 2022 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris.^[88][89] Lens in Maps shares features with Live View, which also displays information relating to street features while guiding a user to a selected destination with virtual arrows, signs and guidance.^[90]

Google collates business listings from multiple on-line and off-line sources. To reduce duplication in the index, Google's algorithm combines listings automatically based on address, phone number, or geocode,^[91] but sometimes information for separate businesses will be inadvertently merged with each other, resulting in listings inaccurately incorporating elements from multiple businesses.^[92] Google allows business owners to create and verify their own business data through Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB).^[93] Owners are encouraged to provide Google with business information including address, phone number, business category, and photos.^[94] Google has staff in India who check and correct listings remotely as well as support businesses with issues.^[95] Google also has teams on the ground in most countries that validate physical addresses in person.^[96] In May 2024, Google announced it would discontinue the chat feature in Google Business Profile. Starting July 15, 2024, new chat conversations would be disabled, and by July 31, 2024, all chat functionalities would end.^[97]

Google Maps can be manipulated by businesses that are not physically located in the area in which they record a listing. There are cases of people abusing Google Maps to overtake their competition by placing unverified listings on online directory sites, knowing the information will roll across to Google (duplicate sites). The people who update these listings do not use a registered business name. They place keywords and location details on their Google Maps business title, which can overtake credible business listings. In Australia in particular, genuine companies and businesses are noticing a trend of fake business listings in a variety of industries.^[98]

Genuine business owners can also optimize their business listings to gain greater visibility in Google Maps, through a type of search engine marketing called local search engine optimization.^[99]

In March 2011, indoor maps were added to Google Maps, giving users the ability to navigate themselves within buildings such as airports, museums, shopping malls, big-box stores, universities, transit stations, and other public spaces (including underground facilities). Google encourages owners of public facilities to submit floor plans of their buildings in order to add them to the service.^[100] Map users can view different floors of a building or subway station by clicking on a level selector that is displayed near any structures which are mapped on multiple levels.

My Maps is a feature in Google Maps launched in April 2007 that enables users to create custom maps for personal use or sharing. Users can add points, lines, shapes, notes and images on top of Google Maps using a WYSIWYG editor.^[101] An Android app for My Maps, initially released in March 2013 under the name Google Maps Engine Lite, was available until its removal from the Play Store in October 2021.^{[102][103][104]}

Google Local Guides is a volunteer program launched by Google Maps^[105] to enable users to contribute to Google Maps when registered. It sometimes provides them additional perks and benefits for their collaboration. Users can achieve Level 1 to 10, and be awarded with badges. The program is partially a successor to Google Map Maker as features from the former program became integrated into the website and app.^[106]

The program consists of adding reviews, photos, basic information, and videos; and correcting information such as wheelchair accessibility.^[107][108] Adding reviews, photos, videos, new places, new roads or providing useful information gives points to the users.^[109] The level of users is upgraded when they get a certain amount of points.^[110][111] Starting with Level 4, a star is shown near the avatar of the user.^[111]

Earth Timelapse, released in April 2021, is a program in which users can see how the earth has been changed in the last 37 years. They combined the 15 million satellite images (roughly ten quadrillion pixels) to create the 35 global cloud-free Images for this program.^[112]

If a user shares their location with Google, Timeline summarises this location for each day on a Timeline map.^[113] Timeline estimates the mode of travel used to move between places and will also show photos taken at that location. In June 2024, Google started progressively removing access to the timeline on web browsers, with the information instead being stored on a local device.^[114][115]

As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and inserted into the page. When a user searches for a business, the results are downloaded in the background for insertion into the side panel and map; the page is not reloaded. A hidden iframe with form submission is used because it preserves browser history. Like many other Google web applications, Google Maps uses JavaScript extensively.^[116] The site also uses protocol buffers for data transfer rather than JSON, for performance reasons.

The version of Google Street View for classic Google Maps required Adobe Flash.^[117] In October 2011, Google announced MapsGL, a WebGL version of Maps with better renderings and smoother transitions.^[118] Indoor maps use JPG, .PNG, .PDF, .BMP, or .GIF, for floor plans.^[119]

Users who are logged into a Google Account can save locations so that they are overlaid on the map with various colored "pins" whenever they browse the application. These "Saved places" can be organized into default groups or user named groups and shared with other users. "Starred places" is one default group example. It previously automatically created a record within the now-discontinued product Google Bookmarks.

The Google Maps terms and conditions^[120] state that usage of material from Google Maps is regulated by Google Terms of Service^[121] and some additional restrictions. Google has either purchased local map data from established companies, or has entered into lease agreements to use copyrighted map data.^[122] The owner of the copyright is listed at the bottom of zoomed maps. For example, street maps in Japan are leased from Zenrin. Street maps in China are leased from AutoNavi.^[123] Russian street maps are leased from Geocentre Consulting and Tele Atlas. Data for North Korea is sourced from the companion project Google Map Maker.

Street map overlays, in some areas, may not match up precisely with the corresponding satellite images. The street data may be entirely erroneous, or simply out of date: "The biggest challenge is the currency of data, the authenticity of data," said Google Earth representative Brian McClendon. As a result, in March 2008 Google added a feature to edit the locations of houses and businesses.^[124][125]

Restrictions have been placed on Google Maps through the apparent censoring of locations deemed potential security threats. In some cases the area of redaction is for specific buildings, but in other cases, such as Washington, D.C.,^[126] the restriction is to use outdated imagery.

Google Maps API, now called Google Maps Platform, hosts about 17 different APIs, which are themed under the following categories: Maps, Places and Routes.^[127]

After the success of reverse-engineered mashups such as chicagocrime.org and housingmaps.com, Google launched the Google Maps API in June 2005^[128] to allow developers to integrate Google Maps into their websites. It was a free service that did not require an API key until June 2018 (changes went into effect on July 16), when it was announced that an API key linked to a Google Cloud account with billing enabled would be required to access the API.^[129] The API currently^[update] does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.^[130]

By using the Google Maps API, it is possible to embed Google Maps into an external website, onto which site-specific data can be overlaid.^[131] Although initially only a JavaScript API, the Maps API was expanded to include an API for Adobe Flash applications (but this has been deprecated), a service for retrieving static map images, and web services for performing geocoding, generating driving directions, and obtaining elevation profiles. Over 1,000,000^[132] web sites use the Google Maps API, making it the most heavily used web application development API.^[133] In September 2011, Google announced it would deprecate the Google Maps API for Flash.^[134]

The Google Maps API was free for commercial use, provided that the site on which it is being used is publicly accessible and did not charge for access, and was not generating more than 25,000 map accesses a day.^[135][136] Sites that did not meet these requirements could purchase the Google Maps API for Business.^[137]

As of June 21, 2018, Google increased the prices of the Maps API and requires a billing profile.^[138]

Due to restrictions on geographic data in China, Google Maps must partner with a Chinese digital map provider in order to legally show Chinese map data. Since 2006, this partner has been AutoNavi.^[123]

Within China, the State Council mandates that all maps of China use the GCJ-02 coordinate system, which is offset from the WGS-84 system used in most of the world. google.cn/maps (formerly Google Ditu) uses the GCJ-02 system for both its street maps^[139] and satellite imagery.^[140] google.com/maps also uses GCJ-02 data for the street map, but uses WGS-84 coordinates for satellite imagery,^[141] causing the so-called China GPS shift problem.

Frontier alignments also present some differences between google.cn/maps and google.com/maps. On the latter, sections of the Chinese border with India and Pakistan are shown with dotted lines, indicating areas or frontiers in dispute. However, google.cn shows the Chinese frontier strictly according to Chinese claims with no dotted lines indicating the border with India and Pakistan. For example, the South Tibet region claimed by China but administered by India as a large part of Arunachal Pradesh is shown inside the Chinese frontier by google.cn, with Indian highways ending abruptly at the Chinese claim line. Google.cn also shows Taiwan and the South China Sea Islands as part of China. Google Ditu's street map coverage of Taiwan no longer omits major state organs, such as the Presidential Palace, the five Yuans, and the Supreme Court.^{[142][additional citation(s) needed]}

Feature-wise, google.cn/maps does not feature My Maps. On the other hand, while google.cn displays virtually all text in Chinese, google.com/maps displays most text (user-selectable real text as well as those on map) in English.^{[citation needed]} This behavior of displaying English text is not consistent but intermittent – sometimes it is in English, sometimes it is in Chinese. The criteria for choosing which language is displayed are not known publicly.^{[citation needed]}

There are cases where Google Maps had added out-of-date neighborhood monikers. Thus, in Los Angeles, the name "Brooklyn Heights" was revived from its 1870s usage^[143] and "Silver Lake Heights" from its 1920s usage,^[144] or mistakenly renamed areas (in Detroit, the neighborhood "Fiskhorn" became "Fishkorn").^[145] Because many companies utilize Google Maps data, these previously obscure or incorrect names then gain traction; the names are often used by realtors, hotels, food delivery sites, dating sites, and news organizations.

Google has said it created its maps from third-party data, public sources, satellites, and users, but many names used have not been connected to any official record.^[143][145] According to a former Google Maps employee (who was not authorized to speak publicly), users can submit changes to Google Maps, but some submissions are ruled upon by people with little local knowledge of a place, such as contractors in India. Critics maintain that names likes "BoCoCa" (for the area in Brooklyn between Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens), are "just plain puzzling" or simply made up.^[145] Some names used by Google have been traced to non-professionally made maps with typographical errors that survived on Google Maps.^[145]

In 2005 the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks, with specific reference to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor; however, the Australian Federal government did not support the organization's concern. At the time of the ANSTO complaint, Google had colored over some areas for security (mostly in the U.S.), such as the rooftop of the White House and several other Washington, D.C. buildings.^{[146][147][148]}

In October 2010, Nicaraguan military commander Edén Pastora stationed Nicaraguan troops on the Isla Calero (in the delta of the San Juan River), justifying his action on the border delineation given by Google Maps. Google has since updated its data which it found to be incorrect.^[149]

On January 27, 2014, documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA and the GCHQ intercepted Google Maps queries made on smartphones, and used them to locate the users making these queries. One leaked document, dating to 2008, stated that "[i]t effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system."^[150]

In May 2015, searches on Google Maps for offensive racial epithets for African Americans such as "nigger", "nigger king", and "nigger house" pointed the user to the White House; Google apologized for the incident.^[151][152]

In December 2015, 3 Japanese netizens were charged with vandalism after they were found to have added an unrelated law firm's name as well as indecent names to locations such as "Nuclear test site" to the Atomic Bomb Dome and "Izumo Satya" to the Izumo Taisha.^[153][154]

In February 2020, the artist Simon Weckert^[155] used 99 cell phones to fake a Google Maps traffic jam.^[156]

In September 2024, several schools in Taiwan and Hong Kong were altered to incorrect labels, such as "psychiatric hospitals" or "prisons". Initially, it was believed to be the result of hacker attacks. However, police later revealed that local students had carried out the prank. Google quickly corrected the mislabeled entries. Education officials in Taiwan and Hong Kong expressed concern over the incident.^{[157][158][159]}

In August 2023, a woman driving from Alice Springs to the Harts Range Racecourse was stranded in the Central Australian desert for a night after following directions provided by Google Maps.^[160][161] She later discovered that Google Maps was providing directions for the actual Harts Range instead of the rodeo. Google said it was looking into the naming of the two locations and consulting with "local and authoritative sources" to solve the issue.^[160]

In February 2024, two German tourists were stranded for a week after Google Maps directed them to follow a dirt track through Oyala Thumotang National Park and their vehicle became trapped in mud.^[162][163] Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Roger James said, "People should not trust Google Maps when they're travelling in remote regions of Queensland, and they need to follow the signs, use official maps or other navigational devices."^[162]

In June 2019, Google Maps provided nearly 100 Colorado drivers an alternative route that led to a dirt road after a crash occurred on Peña Boulevard. The road had been turned to mud by rain, resulting in nearly 100 vehicles being trapped.^[164][161] Google said in a statement, "While we always work to provide the best directions, issues can arise due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather. We encourage all drivers to follow local laws, stay attentive, and use their best judgment while driving."^[164]

In September 2023, Google was sued by a North Carolina resident who alleged that Google Maps had directed her husband over the Snow Creek Bridge in Hickory the year prior, resulting in him drowning. According to the lawsuit, multiple people had notified Google about the state of the bridge, which collapsed in 2013, but Google had not updated the route information and continued to direct users over the bridge.^{[165][166][161]} At the time of the man's death, the barriers placed to block access to the bridge had been vandalized.^[167][168]

In November 2023, a hiker was rescued by helicopter on the backside of Mount Fromme in Vancouver. North Shore Rescue stated on its Facebook page that the hiker had followed a non-existent hiking trail on Google Maps. This was also the second hiker in two months to require rescuing after following the same trail. The fake trail has since been removed from the app.^[169][170]

Also in November 2023, Google apologized after users were directed through desert roads after parts of Interstate 15 were closed due to a dust storm.^[171] Drivers became stranded after following the suggested detour route, which was a "bumpy dirt trail".^[172] Following the incident, Google stated that Google Maps would "no longer route drivers traveling between Las Vegas and Barstow down through those roads."^[171]

In 2020, a teenage motorist was found frozen to death while his passenger was still alive but suffered from severe frostbite after using Google Maps, which had led them to a shorter but abandoned section of the R504 Kolyma Highway, where their Toyota Chaser became disabled.^[173]

In 2024, three men from Uttar Pradesh died after their car fell from an under-construction bridge. They were using Google Maps for driving which misdirected them and the car fell into the Ramganga river.^[174][175]

In February 2025, as a response to Donald Trump's Executive Order 14172, the Gulf of Mexico was renamed to "Gulf of America" for US users and "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)" elsewhere, except for Mexico itself where it remained the Gulf of Mexico. The decision received criticism, with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum asking Google to reconsider its decision.^[176] Google subsequently blocked and deleted negative reviews of the gulf after the name change occurred.^[177][178]

Google Latitude was a feature that let users share their physical locations with other people. This service was based on Google Maps, specifically on mobile devices. There was an iGoogle widget for desktops and laptops as well.^[179] Some concerns were expressed about the privacy issues raised by the use of the service.^[180] On August 9, 2013, this service was discontinued,^[181] and on March 22, 2017, Google incorporated the features from Latitude into the Google Maps app.^[182]

In areas where Google Map Maker was available, for example, much of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe as well as the United States and Canada, anyone who logged into their Google account could directly improve the map by fixing incorrect driving directions, adding biking trails, or adding a missing building or road. General map errors in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States could be reported using the Report a Problem link in Google Maps and would be updated by Google.^[183] For areas where Google used Tele Atlas data, map errors could be reported using Tele Atlas map insight.^[184]

If imagery was missing, outdated, misaligned, or generally incorrect, one could notify Google through their contact request form.^[185]

In November 2016, Google announced the discontinuation of Google Map Maker as of March 2017.^[186]

Screenshot

Screenshot of Google Maps on Android 14

Google Maps

Original author(s)	Google
Initial release	2006; 19 years ago (2006)
Stable release(s) [±]
Preview release(s) [±]
Operating system	Android iOS KaiOS Wear OS WatchOS Web Fitbit OS Formerly: Java ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile

Google Maps is available as a mobile app for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. The first mobile version of Google Maps (then known as Google Local for Mobile) was launched in beta in November 2005 for mobile platforms supporting J2ME.^{[194][195][196]} It was released as Google Maps for Mobile in 2006.^[197] In 2007 it came preloaded on the first iPhone in a deal with Apple.^[198] A version specifically for Windows Mobile was released in February 2007^[199] and the Symbian app was released in November 2007.^[200]

Version 2.0 of Google Maps Mobile was announced at the end of 2007, with a stand out My Location feature to find the user's location using the cell towers, without needing GPS.^{[201][202][203]} In September 2008, Google Maps was released for and preloaded on Google's own new platform Android.^[204][205]

Up until iOS 6, the built-in maps application on the iOS operating system was powered by Google Maps. However, with the announcement of iOS 6 in June 2012, Apple announced that they had created their own Apple Maps mapping service,^[206] which officially replaced Google Maps when iOS 6 was released on September 19, 2012.^[207] However, at launch, Apple Maps received significant criticism from users due to inaccuracies, errors and bugs.^[208][209] One day later, The Guardian reported that Google was preparing its own Google Maps app,^[210] which was released on December 12, 2012.^[211][212] Within two days, the application had been downloaded over ten million times.^[213]

The Google Maps apps for iOS and Android have many of the same features, including turn-by-turn navigation, street view, and public transit information.^[214][215] Turn-by-turn navigation was originally announced by Google as a separate beta testing app exclusive to Android 2.0 devices in October 2009.^[216][217] The original standalone iOS version did not support the iPad,^[215] but tablet support was added with version 2.0 in July 2013.^[218] An update in June 2012 for Android devices added support for offline access to downloaded maps of certain regions,^[219][220] a feature that was eventually released for iOS devices, and made more robust on Android, in May 2014.^[221][222]

At the end of 2015 Google Maps announced its new offline functionality,^[223] but with various limitations – downloaded area cannot exceed 120,000 square kilometers^[224][225] and require a considerable amount of storage space.^[226] In January 2017, Google added a feature exclusively to Android that will, in some U.S. cities, indicate the level of difficulty in finding available parking spots,^[227] and on both Android and iOS, the app can, as of an April 2017 update, remember where users parked.^[228][229] In August 2017, Google Maps for Android was updated with new functionality to actively help the user in finding parking lots and garages close to a destination.^[230] In December 2017, Google added a new two-wheeler mode to its Android app, designed for users in India, allowing for more accessibility in traffic conditions.^[231][232] In 2019 the Android version introduced the new feature called live view that allows to view directions directly on the road thanks to augmented reality.^[233] Google Maps won the 2020 Webby Award for Best User Interface in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.^[234] In March 2021, Google added a feature in which users can draw missing roads.^[235] In June 2022, Google implemented support for toll calculation. Both iOS and Android apps report how much the user has to pay in tolls when a route that includes toll roads is input. The feature is available for roads in the US, India, Japan and Indonesia with further expansion planned. As per reports the total number of toll roads covered in this phase is around 2000.^[236]

USA Today welcomed the application back to iOS, saying: "The reemergence in the middle of the night of a Google Maps app for the iPhone is like the return of an old friend. Only your friend, who'd gone missing for three months, comes back looking better than ever."^[237] Jason Parker of CNET, calling it "the king of maps", said, "With its iOS Maps app, Google sets the standard for what mobile navigation should be and more."^[238] Bree Fowler of the Associated Press compared Google's and Apple's map applications, saying: "The one clear advantage that Apple has is style. Like Apple devices, the maps are clean and clear and have a fun, pretty element to them, especially in 3-D. But when it comes down to depth and information, Google still reigns superior and will no doubt be welcomed back by its fans."^[239] Gizmodo gave it a ranking of 4.5 stars, stating: "Maps Done Right".^[240] According to The New York Times, Google "admits that it's [iOS app is] even better than Google Maps for Android phones, which has accommodated its evolving feature set mainly by piling on menus".^[241]

Google Maps' location tracking is regarded by some as a threat to users' privacy, with Dylan Tweney of VentureBeat writing in August 2014 that "Google is probably logging your location, step by step, via Google Maps", and linked users to Google's location history map, which "lets you see the path you've traced for any given day that your smartphone has been running Google Maps". Tweney then provided instructions on how to disable location history.^[242] The history tracking was also noticed, and recommended disabled, by editors at CNET^[243] and TechCrunch.^[244] Additionally, Quartz reported in April 2014 that a "sneaky new privacy change" would have an effect on the majority of iOS users. The privacy change, an update to the Gmail iOS app that "now supports sign-in across Google iOS apps, including Maps, Drive, YouTube and Chrome", meant that Google would be able to identify users' actions across its different apps.^[245]

The Android version of the app surpassed five billion installations in March 2019.^[246] By November 2021, the Android app had surpassed 10 billion installations.^[247]

Google Maps Go, a version of the app designed for lower-end devices, was released in beta in January 2018.^[248] By September 2018, the app had over 10 million installations.^[249]

The German "geo-novel" Senghor on the Rocks (2008) presents its story as a series of spreads showing a Google Maps location on the left and the story's text on the right. Annika Richterich explains that the "satellite pictures in Senghor on the Rocks illustrate the main character's travel through the West-African state of Senegal".^[250]

Artists have used Google Street View in a range of ways. Emilio Vavarella's The Google Trilogy includes glitchy images and unintended portraits of the drivers of the Street View cars.^[251] The Japanese band group inou used Google Street View backgrounds to make a music video for their song EYE.^[252] The Canadian band Arcade Fire made a customized music video that used Street View to show the viewer their own childhood home.^[253][254]

• Azure Maps
• Apple Maps
• Bing Maps
• Comparison of web map services
• GeoGuessr
• Google Earth
• Google Maps Road Trip, live-streaming documentary
• Here WeGo
• MapQuest
• OpenStreetMap
• Terravision (computer program)
• Wikiloc, a mashup that shows trails and waypoints on Google Maps
• Wikimapia, a mashup combining Google Maps and a wiki aimed at "describing the whole planet earth"
• Yandex Maps, popular in Russia and CIS