20 years of Google Maps: From the desktop to your pocket – a revolution!

20 years of Google Maps: From the desktop to your pocket – a revolution!

On February 8, 2025, Google Maps will celebrate its 20th anniversary and can look back on impressive development. The digital mapping application was launched in 2005 after Google acquired Where 2 Technologies in 2004. This project laid the foundation for groundbreaking technology by pre-drawing the maps in tiles, revolutionizing the user experience. The service was launched in Germany, Spain, France and Italy on April 26, 2006 and has since mapped more than 250 countries, including Small newspaper reported.

Technological innovation continues to be at the heart of Google Maps. The use of artificial intelligence is increasing to immediately detect road changes, such as turning traffic light intersections into roundabouts. In the future, it will also be possible to ask Google Maps where to plan celebrations for special occasions such as a child's 8th birthday, which promises to be convenient to use. At the same time, a new feature allows users to go back in time to see past views of places. This is done by using the Street View service and installing Google Earth Pro, which allows viewing historical maps and satellite images, as by wikiHow reported.

During development, Google Maps has also overcome challenges, such as in Germany, where in 2010 privacy concerns over the anonymity of street photography led many citizens to have their images pixelated. Street View finally returned in summer 2023 with updated imagery to provide users with a better experience. 20 years after its founding, Google Maps is not only a central platform for users worldwide, but also an important part of Google's advertising business.