I thought Mercator became popular due to online maps like Google using it. It's ... | Hacker News

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		globular-toast 10 months ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: The True Size Of I thought Mercator became popular due to online maps like Google using it. It's convenient for tiles because it's square. I don't think I've ever seen a Mercator map of the world printed out, though. Is that seriously a thing? It looks completely ridiculous. Every poster I've seen has been a more rectangular projection like Robinson.

perilunar 10 months ago [–]

Google Maps doesn't use Mercator — it uses a 3D globe. If you zoom out you can see the whole globe and there doesn't seem to be any jump where the projection changes, or any distortion of country sizes.

Edit: I just noticed that Google Maps on Firefox and Chrome is indeed 3D, but on Safari it is 2D Mercator.

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