Google Maps in the context of Mapathon

Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell images by licensing them to governments and businesses such as Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Apple Maps is a web mapping service developed by Apple. As the default map system of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS, it provides directions and estimated times of arrival for driving, walking, cycling, and public transportation navigation. A "Flyover" mode shows certain urban centers and other places of interest in a 3D landscape composed of models of buildings and structures.

First released in 2012, Apple Maps replaced Google Maps as the default map system on Apple devices. At launch, it drew criticism from users and reviewers for incorrect directions, sparse data about public transportation, and various other bugs and errors. Apple has since further developed the software to address the issues raised by such criticism.

A torii (Japanese: 鳥居; [to.ɾi.i]) is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred, and a spot where kami are welcomed and thought to travel through.

The presence of a torii at the entrance is usually the simplest way to identify Shinto shrines, and a small torii icon represents them on Japanese road maps and on Google Maps.

Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. Google Street View displays interactive panoramas of stitched VR photographs. Most photography is done by car, but some is done by tricycle, camel, boat, snowmobile, underwater apparatus, and on foot.

First launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, Street View has since expanded to include all of the country's major and minor cities, as well as the cities and rural areas of many other countries worldwide. As of 2017, Street View had coverage in 83 countries. Street View has been used for research in fields like urban analytics and geographic information science. Street View imagery has also been used in artistic work.

Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen (born 1968) is a Danish computer scientist, technology executive, and the co-founder of Google Maps. He was later the director of engineering for Facebook in London.

In early 2003, Lars and his brother Jens co-founded a mapping-related startup, Where 2 Technologies, which was acquired by Google in October 2004. Rasmussen became the head of the Google Maps team and worked at Google until joining Facebook in late 2010.

Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen (born 1966) is a Danish software engineer, technology executive, and co-founder of Where 2 Technologies which led to Google Maps.

Google Map Maker was a map editing service launched by Google in June 2008. In geographies where it is hard to find providers of good map data, user contributions were used to increase map quality. Changes to Google Map Maker were intended to appear on Google Maps only after sufficient review by Google moderators. Google Map Maker was used at Google Mapathon events held annually.

In November 2016, Google announced that Google Map Maker would be retired and merged with Google Maps. Google Map Maker was officially shut down on March 31, 2017.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a map database maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial photo imagery or satellite imagery, and import from other freely licensed geodata sources. OpenStreetMap is freely licensed under the Open Database License and is commonly used to make electronic maps, inform turn-by-turn navigation, and assist in humanitarian aid and data visualisation. OpenStreetMap uses its own data model to store geographical features which can then be exported into other GIS file formats. The OpenStreetMap website itself is an online map, geodata search engine, and editor.

OpenStreetMap was created by Steve Coast in response to the Ordnance Survey, the United Kingdom's national mapping agency, failing to release its data to the public under free licences in 2004. Initially, maps in OSM were created only via GPS traces, but it was quickly populated by importing public domain geographical data such as the U.S. TIGER and by tracing imagery as permitted by source. OpenStreetMap's adoption was accelerated by the development of supporting software and applications and Google Maps' 2012 introduction of pricing.

Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known as Sundar Pichai (pronounced: /ˈsʊndɜːr pɪˈtʃeɪ/), is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.

Pichai began his career as a materials engineer. Following a short stint at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome and ChromeOS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive. In addition, he went on to oversee the development of other applications such as Gmail and Google Maps.