3 ms·

Google decided to go with "A Globe".

• deathanatos 8y ago
  At low zoom levels. Given the behavior of the poles (they're not viewable; the south is also a black hole…), I suspect that there's a very smoothly done transition to web mercator for the higher zoom levels.
  • gefh 8y ago
    Correct. At high zooms, the trig required in the spherical math becomes inaccurate, so we fade back to simple web mercator.
    • astrodust 8y ago
      Cartography wouldn't be able to use all these cheap tricks if the poles were habitable territory. Can you imagine the distortion on a map of a small town located at the pole if Mercator was used?