Ask HN: Why does Google Maps still use mercator projection?

Posted by hbarka 2 days ago

Mercator projection exaggerates land size near the poles. Example: Greenland. I understand why this was necessary for flat paper maps and paper navigation but on the internet, web maps should be able to dynamically adjust based on viewing tangent. The true relative size would be as if you’re looking at a globe map and your sightline is tangent to the curve of the globe.

Comments

Comment by drafkind 1 day ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Mercator_projection#Advant...

This is done to optimize for computer display. Also makes each discrete zoom level 2x of the previous one, and makes nice square map tiles.

Other projections are possible but end up with wierd map tiles, defeating smooth scroll on the draggable map.

Comment by roywiggins 2 days ago

There was a time when zooming out did give you a sphere.

https://venturebeat.com/technology/google-maps-is-now-a-glob...

Comment by NoahZuniga 1 day ago

It still does for me! This is a feature that can be turned on or off on Google maps web, under the layers menu.

Comment by DennisL123 2 days ago

Agree, mercator projection isn’t great. But it’s pretty simple.

All of the mapping apps are rooted in paper maps. That’s what most people find accessible in a natural way.

So, in any 2D world view some projection must be chosen, and you can fundamentally chose between true angles or true size. Because of that choice any projection is a distortion. Choosing true angles has advantages when it comes to turning projected data into something like turn instructions in your nav app. And then again, mercator projection is easy to use. So, bottom line it’s a mix of people are used to it and simplicity of using it.