OK, so this is not related to VR, but if you use those online map services like MapQuest, check out Google Maps.
The speed with which it paints new territory seems remarkable. Also it's great that it displays the map as large as you want -- so if you have a 3000 pixel wide screen, you can stretch your browser window to screen size and the map expands to fill the space. The other map services have tended to limit the map view to a tiny little viewport even if you have a mondo CRT.
There are a few things that seem unusual about the UI: they make you double-click to re-center the map (single clicking anywhere in the map does nothing**); and lets say you zoom in almost to street block level and type in "free wifi" in the search field (one of their example searches)--suddenly the map zooms out several levels. Did I ask the map to zoom out three levels? No. One of the surprising details is when you click on a business icon and an info billboard pops up with the address, phone #, etc, and there's this drop shadow the size of Manhattan obscuring the neighborhood, complete with blurred edges. All in all, fairly amazing. Are they doing this all with JavaScript and CSS?
Funny things about the map territory: try zooming into Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. It's green up to a certain level, then it just breaks down. Some towns, parks, and roads are shown in Canada, but only exist at high levels of zoom. And there is an inconsistency regarding non-covered territory. Greenland is completely missing off the map, so it's clear that there's no info for Greenland at all. But Mexico is shown, and if you click there, it's just blank, empty territory. Central America is like Greenland, not shown. Being a beta version, I would guess they plan to cover Mexico and Canada.
Here's their description of this service:
"Maps are great for getting around, but online maps could be a lot better. So Google decided to make dynamic, interactive maps that are draggable — no clicking and waiting for graphics to reload each time you want to view the adjacent parts of a map. Want to be able to type in the name of a region or neighborhood and see any part of it as easily as with a regular street map? Now you can with Google Maps.
Since these maps are draggable, you can use your mouse or the directional arrows to pan left, right, up and down to see areas that are hidden offscreen. You can also use the slider to zoom in and zoom out.
It's like having a huge map you can scroll around in."
But the list of supported browsers is short -- don't bother going there with Safari or Opera.
** unless you click on a business icon, and then it displays a popup.
7:38:21 AM 
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