Maps as Science Fiction Delivered

Google reports on a most impressive legacy, the provision of maps online and mobile, over the last ten years.  We now take it for granted that we have constant, interactive, nearly instant access to complex and accurate maps that have many layers of knowledge.   Even views of the streets themselves for better local orientations.

The layers of additional information form a kind of selective 'augmented geography' we could not have imagined just a few decades ago.   Delivered science fiction.   Impressive no matter how you look at it.  Plus the ability to add this knowledge to other systems that need geography.   They say they will be revealing more of the details of map development in future posts.