Using the Satellite View in Google Maps

Google Maps provides much more then just maps, they also have high-resolution images for most urban areas in North America as well as parts of many of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, Japan, and many other countries.

You can turn the high-resolution images on by selecting the satellite button. This then turns the images option on behind the streets of the maps. Although Google uses the word "satellite", some of the high-resolution imagery used is actually airborne aerial photography rather than from satellites

Most of the images shown in Google Maps' satellite mode were taken a year ago or much earlier then that in some places. Basically the images are purchased from image libraries because purchasing more recent images involves much more money and resources.

With the introduction of an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool, the mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in high resolution imagery. Sites such as Google Sightseeing and Virtual Globetrotting were established which feature satellite images of interesting natural and man-made landmarks, including such novelties as "large type" writing visible in the imagery, as well as famous stadia and unique earth formations.