Go Over The Hills And Through The Woods With Google Maps Terrain Mode
Google Maps has gone another step toward becoming a web-based Google Earth, adding a new terrain view. As the name implies, the terrain view, which replaces the old hybrid view, lets you look at geographical features.
In urban areas terrain view will show building outlines and landmarks, while in rural areas you’ll see mountain ranges and other natural features.
The new terrain view isn’t as fully rendered as it is in Google Earth and there’s no way to change the camera position to check how tall something is, but despite the 2-D limitations, Google has done a pretty good job of making the terrain view have a 3-D look and feel.
The main disappointment with terrain view is that you’re limited to zooming in at 1000 feet — with satellite and map views you can often get down to 20 feet, though that depends somewhat on the coverage in the area in question.
For those horror-stricken to have lost their beloved hybrid view, fear not the hybrid overlay is now the default look for the satellite view. And for those wanting the old satellite view there’s an option to hide the added data — just click Satellite and then you’ll see a and option to “show labels,” which toggles the normal and hybrid satellite views.
It’s not quite the topo-view I’ve always wished existed in Google Maps, but the new terrain view does provide a much clearer look at the geography of a region than you can get with just the satellite images.
Here’s what terrain view looks like in an urban area:
Preference setting to toggle between normal and hybrid satellite views:
[via Google Operating System]
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