Satellite View

Many people find it fun to use the satellite view to find their house or apartment building. Can you find yours? Over the years, the satellite view has also sparked controversy because high school pranks were caught with the eye of the satellite’s camera. When roofs of buildings have high-schoolers painting the doodles that used to be kept on the top of desks, you know you have an Internet success story!

Terrain View

This view doesn’t have any unique stories to go along with it. It captures the hills and valleys of the landscape. This is a feature most other maps online do not provide. When Google Maps first came around, this feature was simply named hybrid, since it showed a mix of streets and terrain. Now it’s simply called terrain.

Street Level and Traffic Views

Google Maps has what everyone else has been dreaming about – street level photos. What a kick this feature is for most users. You can virtually zoom onto the street, swing the camera from side to side, and then hit an arrow to zip down the street. Street level also has what you would imagine on the street – cars and people. This relatively new feature of Google Maps definitely sets it apart from other online map providers.

From what I understand, Google has vehicles with cameras attached at different angles to capture the street view photos. This moving movie set drives down the road recording its surroundings at a fairly slow pace. When you zoom to street level on a New York City street (for example), you will likely see lots of people, and a fair amount of traffic. See anyone you know?!

Street Level views are not available in Google Maps in every country yet.